Basically, it’s about basics in Muktsar

Archit Watts

WE start our journey from the bus stand of Muktsar (literally, ‘lake of liberation’), travelling on the potholed Abohar road. Our first stop is the shop of Sartaj, a maker of chick blinds. He says, “I have been plying my trade here for the past about 10 years. The road’s condition is going from bad to worse. Travel for a while and you will get used to it.”

This road is linked to the Jalalabad road, which is under construction. Several manholes are left uncovered, posing a grave risk to the motorists. As we stop outside a fuel station to wipe the dust off the face and click pictures of the road, a middle-aged man, Sant Parkash Singh, stops his motorcycle. Then he gets going: “Press wale ho? Saare shahar da hi bura haal ae. Kinniya ku photoan khichonge? Naa paani dhang da hai, naa sadkaan, naa hi sewerage system. Ehi sadak dekh lo, kinni der ton eddan di hi hai. Kamm kuch din chalda hai, fer rukk janda hai. Hai te eh eh zila, par haal pind nalo vi maada hai (Are you journalists? The entire town is in bad shape. How many photos will you click? Work on this road is being done in fits and starts. This is the district headquarters, but its condition is poorer than that of the villages).”

Asked about the ongoing development works, he replies, “Eh taan lok votan velle dassange vikas ki hunda ae. Khaas karke oh lok jihna nu es sarkar de hundeya thaane da koi kamm pya hou. Kuch der pehla ek Dalit munda vadh ke maar ditta par parivaar waleya nu insaaf layi dharna launa pya (The public will give their verdict on development during the elections. Especially those people who had to visit a police station for their work. Recently, a Dalit youth was hacked to death and the family had to lodge a protest to seek justice).”

Going ahead, we see a group of elderly men playing cards on the roadside. Eager to talk about poll issues, one of them says, “Many people from far-flung areas come to our town to pay obeisance at the historic gurdwara, but see the condition of the road leading to its entrance number 7. Waterlogging has made people’s lives miserable.”

After passing through narrow lanes of the old town, we reach the entrance in question, where there is hardly any space for commuters as a sewerage system is being installed. After a brief introduction, Shamsher Singh and Kulwant Singh, both in their mid-sixties, narrate their plight. “For the past 10 years, our street has been bearing the brunt of rainwater and sewage. All our pleas fell on deaf ears. Thankfully, the elections are approaching and someone thought of starting work,” they say. Naseeb Kaur claims that the construction work is not only belated but also faulty. “It will create new problems for us,” she says.

Travelling on the bank road and the railway road, we see some high-mast light poles and streets paved with interlocked tiles — a semblance of the development trumpeted by SAD leaders such as Akali halqa incharge Kanwarjit Singh ‘Rozy Barkandi’. Ankush Deep, a geologist, put things in perspective: “Galiyan te Rozy Barkandi de kehan te ban gaiyan. Par shahar da sewerage system kharaab hai te dekhna eh hai ke kinni ku der theek rehndiya ne (The streets have been constructed with the efforts of Rozy Barkandi. But the city’s sewerage system is defective and it remains to be seen how long these will last).”

After a whirlwind tour of the town, we travel a few km on the Kotkapura road, where a toll plaza is coming at Warring village. It is being opposed by local residents. “The road has been widened, but the new bridges on the twin canals are yet to be built. Luckily, the toll plaza has not yet become functional,” say villagers standing at the bus stop.

At Udekaran village, Gurtej Singh says, “Development has taken place in proportion to the votes that went into the Akali kitty. Our village voted for the Akali candidate during the Block Samiti elections, yet only a few streets are being built because earlier the Congress always got more votes from here.”

He recalls that the CM came to their village during the monsoon in 2013, when it was waterlogged, but no drainage system has been put in place till date. “Let’s see what the Congress or AAP will do if they come to power. During her tenure, Bibi ji (sitting MLA Karan Kaur Brar) could not do anything, maybe because the Congress was in the Opposition,” Gurtej adds.

The gates built at all entrances to the town in memory of the 40 mukte (liberated ones) — the Sikhs who attained martyrdom during Guru Gobind Singh’s last battle against the Mughals here in 1705 — are also a picture of neglect, with some pieces of red marble missing.

Travelling through the serpentine bypass road, we again reach the local bus stand, where Gurjeet Singh, a bus conductor, says, “Governments have come and gone, but nobody has stopped the overloaded tractor-trailers plying on the Malout road, which also needs to be widened. Sewage continues to spill over on to the Jalalabad road near Fattanwala village. The town residents are still lucky as some beautification is done ahead of the annual Maghi Mela in January.”

Social activist Sham Lal Goyal, who is leading a campaign for the construction of the town’s maiden railway overbridge, says Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal had laid the foundation stone in February 2014, before the parliamentary elections, but the tenders have been floated only now.

Then comes his parting shot: “The Tribune has written a lot about waterlogging, but the government has failed to come up with any long-term solution.”

Last election result

Winner 
Karan Kaur Brar (Congress)

Votes polled
55,108

Runner-up
Kanwarjit ‘Rozy Barkandi’ (SAD)

Votes polled
45,853