Historic Hisar collapsing under its own weight

The western town of Haryana is but a shade of its rich past; not many know its historical significance, and those who do, prefer to twiddle their thumbs at the sorry state of its present. The Town fathers have got their priorities mixed up despite the city being an industrial-education hub of Haryana having produced several eminent persons, both in politics (Bhajan Lal, Sampat Singh, Dushyat Chautala) and industry (the Jindals and Zee’s Subhash Chandra). The strategically located town bordering Rajasthan got its Cantonment in 1982 and thus is a bustling city of around one-and-a-half million people. 

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Old residents have a bizarre tale to correlate to the present civic mess. “The inauguration of Haryana’s first rail over-bridge was to be completed with showering of flowers from a Pushpak plane drawn from the local flying club. It crashed, killing the pilot,” recalls Rishi Saini. Since then there has been almost nil infrastructure development of the town.

Hisar has been a centre of agriculture produce, especially cotton, guar, wheat and mustard. It has around 1,500 registered industrial units with over a dozen being medium and big units. With around 250 agro-based industries, industrialists and experts say Hisar can emerge as a major centre of agriculture based food processing industry. “The raw material is available in abundance,” says Ajay Batra, secretary of the Hisar Udyog Sangh. He demands the government take steps to provide facilities and tax concessions to them.

The Hisar Improvement Trust also floated a trade and commerce hub about 15 years ago, but a lack of investment has kept the venue underdeveloped. The commercial zone spread over three phases in 91 acres is mired in legal tangles.

For the record, Hisar-e-Firoza came into existence in 1354 AD at the initiative of Firoz Shah Tughlaq of Delhi Sultanate. It once had fortified walls with four gates – the Delhi Gate and Mori Gate to the east, the Nagori Gate to the south and Talaqi Gate to the west. “The boundary wall was built of stones brought from the hills of Narsai. The city was also surrounded by a big ditch dug round the wall. A large and deep tank was constructed inside the fort, and the water used to replenish the ditch. Inside the fort a fine palace, having a complex of different buildings was built. Well laid-out gardens added to the beauty of the palace. The initial stage of the city was completed after the incessant work of two-and-a-half years,” says a report of the district administration.

Unplanned growth has made a mess of the town. While the historic gates paved the way for the widening of roads, the town which spread out beyond its limits is now surrounded by unauthorized colonies and plagued by loads of civic problems.

“There is no space for public parking and traffic congestion is worsened by stray cattle,” says Umesh Sharma, a young entrepreneur and owner of food joint Tikki Town. “Those in power have failed to live up to our expectations,” he said.

Sharma said to begin with, the authorities must concentrate on basic facilities such as potable water, drainage and roads. “The government should expedite the process to regularize illegal colonies before it charts out a development plan,” he said.

Anil Jain, municipal councilor from ward number 1, says the government’s promise to set up an international airport and an international cricket stadium in the town is ridiculous. “The previous government wanted to convert ‘dhobighat’ into a parking area adjoining Rajguru Market. But 20 months after the new government came in, the project awaits technical approval. On drawing board, the project has a double-storey parking facility in about 12,000 square yards,” he said.

The state of cringing infrastructure is clear from the fact that the Hisar Municipal Corporation has a budget of around Rs 52 crore of which around Rs 37 crore is the employees’ salary component.