Drug smuggling, incomplete projects remained talking points in Gurdaspur

Ravi Dhaliwal

Gurdaspur, January 1

Drones, drugs and the prolonged absence of MP Sunny Deol remained the talking points in this district in the year that has gone by. Doubts about the timely completion of the Makkoran Pattan bridge and the Tibri road rail under-pass, too, were topics of discussion.

The BSF and the Gurdaspur police have been partially successful in blocking the flow of drugs from entering through the border. The police nevertheless are taking the menace seriously. This can be gauged from the fact that IG (Border) Mohnish Chawla himself led raids in villages a few weeks ago.

For several decades, the talk of constructing an 800-meter-long concrete bridge from Makkoran Pattan to a dozen villages on the other side of the Ravi river has been thick in the air. This year, MP Sunny Deol promised that he would get the link constructed. If he succeeds, he will be able to improve the living conditions of nearly 4,000 villagers. This proposal, however, is still on the drawing board. The Army permission is mandatory because the cluster is just a stone’s throw from the International Border (IB).

This year, the district got a new DC and SSP, both regular recruits of the civil services. These officers are trying to bring in some innovative methods to improve the working of the administration and the police. Hours after Himanshu Aggarwal took charge as the DC recently, he called a meeting of the PWD officers and asked them why the 28-km-long Gurdaspur-Mukerian stretch of road was always full of potholes. “The area through which the road passes is waterlogged,” replied officials. The DC ordered them to find a solution to the problem. This year also saw the administration forwarding the proposal to convert the Mukerian road into a four-lane one to the state government. If this happens, Gurdaspur’s economy will get a massive boost.

Work started early this year on the Tibri road railway underpass. 12 months on, it is still underway. Commuters are forced to take long detours. This means loss of time, money and man hours. Aggarwal has now ordered officials to fast-track the work. He has now asked officials to complete the project by March 31.

In another initiative, the DC is taking the administration to border area villages under the ‘Absolute Border Area Development’ (ABAD) scheme. Its success, however, is yet to be measured.