Controversy over Dyer’s house, Phansi Ghar at Amritsar fort

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 24

A controversy has sparked off regarding the presence of General O’Dyer’s residence and “Phansi Ghar” at the Gobindgarh Fort , with a local researcher claiming that such structures were never there at the fort. He said even the map put up by the Punjab Tourism Board did not mention such a structure. 

The board is engaged in conserving the fort, which dates back to the period of Sikh misls. 

A city-based researcher, Surinder Kochhar, claimed, “There is no documentary proof of the existence of Dyer’s residence and Phansi Ghar. It is all hearsay.”  He maintained that a map installed at the fort did not mention the bungalow of O’Dyer and Phansi Ghar and presented it as admission on the part of the board to support his point. 

He elaborated that it was in 2005 that the Indian Army had handed over the fort to the state government led by Capt Amarinder Singh. He claimed that since then, the board had been projecting Toshakhana as O’Dyer’s bungalow and the chlorination room as Phansi Ghar. Besides, a two-storey building had been projected as the “durbar hall” of O’Dyer, he claimed. He added that these unfounded claims snapped the links of the fort with Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Kochhar claimed to have taken up the matter with officials of the Indian Army in the past. He said then, the officials had sent the report over the matter to their senior officials and the Home Ministry. 

However, the project in charge for the fort restoration, AR Mishra, says, “It is not an exhaustive map and it only indicates the ongoing work being carried out by the board.” He said that O’Dyer’s residence and “Phansi Ghar” were in the fort.

Cultural Affairs and Tourism Director Navjot Pal Singh Randhawa said he could neither confirm nor deny the existence of O’Dyer’s residence and Phansi Ghar in the fort. He admitted it was hearsay.