Stuck in ‘development’ in Rampura Phul

Varinder Singh

It is 10.30 am but the otherwise bustling main bazaar of Rampura Phul has an unusual feel about it as a thick blanket of fog takes its time to lift — almost a complete lack of activity. Post-November 8, that’s the new normal: less of buying and more of talking about the scrapped Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes.

One place where a queue has already formed, since 7.30 am we are told, is in front of a bank in the main bazaar. In the line among the hordes of residents stands Sukhmandar Singh, a daily-wager. After his expected lines on discomfort, he shifts to the Punjab elections. “Chonaan di gall taan lokaan nu bhulaa hi ditti Modiji ne. Saare desh vich Modi Modi karaati. Koi development duvulpment ni hoi ethe. Neta laare laa ke chalde bande han, baad vich koi baat ni puchhda (Modi has made people forget about the polls. He has made everyone take his name. There has been no development in the constituency. Political leaders befool people by making promises but once they get the votes, all are forgotten).”

On the Factory Road ahead, Kewal Krishan is busy dusting the essential items stored in his small shop. The footfall is down, he says, and tidying up helps him think less. His thoughts about the elections veer around to basic concerns. “The biggest problem of the township is the disposal of rainwater in bazaars during the rainy season,” he says. “It rises up to 2 ft and remains accumulated for a full night. Rampura Phul city remains an example of unplanned development. New roads have come up, with LED streetlights, but what good is all this if a simple downpour brings misery?”

The Rampura Phul constituency is Jat-dominated, though Dalit voters play a major role as they number around 40 per cent in rural areas and 20 per cent in urban areas. The Hindu community, too, has a sizeable presence.

The constituency has been offering a mixed bag of opportunities to all major political parties. It had sent CPI representatives to the Assembly in 1969, 1973, 1977 and 1980, Akali Dal nominees in 1972, 1985, 1997 and 2012 and Congress candidates in 1967, 1992 and 2007. The seat was represented by an Independent candidate, Gurpreet Singh Kangar, just once, in 2002. Sikandar Singh Maluka had defeated Kangar (contesting on the Congress ticket) in the last election. 

Maluka, the Rural Development and Panchayats Minister, is the Akali candidate again this time and sees no anti-incumbency. “The kind of development I have ensured is unparalleled. Does anyone have any doubt about my victory?” he asks. AAP has fielded an industrialist, Manjit Singh Sidhu, while former MLA Kangar is the frontrunner for the Congress ticket.

It is Rampura Phul, along with Mehraj — Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh’s ancestral village which got the status of a nagar panchayat a few months before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections — and the villages of Bhai Rupa, Kotha Guru and Maluka (the MLA’s native village) that mainly decide the fortunes of candidates in the constituency. Mehraj may be the state’s biggest village but lags behind as far as development is concerned. The disposal of sewage is a huge problem here, as it is in almost cities and townships of Bathinda district.

Mehraj, Kotha Guru and Sidhana villages have also gained notoriety for the number of gangsters that have emerged from here. Rampura Phul constituency has another distinction it would like to shed — its long-standing politics of confrontation and the tradition of parchas (FIRs — mostly registered on flimsy grounds and for settling a political score).

Rampura Phul was once considered Punjab’s second biggest dry tea leaf market and the heart of the cotton and ginning industry — which has died a slow death since vast tracts of cotton have been overtaken by water-guzzling paddy. “Paddy cultivation has led to gross over-exploitation of groundwater,” points out Daljit Singh, a farmer of Dullewala village.

For Brij Lal, a businessman, the Municipal Council’s recent drive to place full-grown palm plants in the bazaars is nothing but a way to mint money by ‘willy politicians’. “The idea was good, but they have come out with it only when the polls are around the corner. Moreover, what was the need to waste Rs 7,000-8,000 on an almost full-grown plant when they could arrange small plants for a fraction of the cost? Stray bulls have already eaten leaves of a large number of plants,” he says.

The traffic congestion and stray cattle are common refrains, even in the times of demonetisation. Almost all roads leading to Rampura Phul are either dotted with potholes or have been dug up for re-carpeting and residents don’t tire of pointing out the constant dust-laden air as a result of six-laning of the Rampura Phul to Barnala and Bathinda roads. “You can’t breathe. Anything you wear will get dirty without fail. And the deadly combination of foggy weather and dug-up roads is causing accidents, and fatalities, on the highway on a daily basis,” says Gurmukh Singh, an electrician. “What was so difficult in completing one side instead of starting construction on both sides?”

As Sukhmandar Singh, standing in the bank queue, puts it: “Ehnu kehnde ne duvulopment? Theek hai pher, agge ve sehende aiyaan han hun ve seh lan ge (This is what you call development? Fine then, we’ve endured in the past, will do so now too).”