Hansi may get heritage city tag

CHANDIGARH: Hansi town of

Hisar district

-- where freedom fighters were crushed under road -rollers in the wake of the 1857 revolt -- may soon get the tag of a heritage city. Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar revealed on Saturday that the town would soon be developed as a heritage city, as the state government had submitted a proposal for the same to the central government. Hoping for approval of the proposal, Khattar said the town was famous for its historic relics.

The brutal killings of freedom fighters in Hansi were part of a revenge by Britishers, after revolutionaries had killed the then Hisar collector John Wedderburn in 1857.

A local road of the town is still known as '

Lal Sadak

.' Then, the Britishers had hanged leaders of freedom fighters, including

Lala Hukum Chand Jain

and Munir Beg. The Britishers had also destroyed a neighbouring village Rohnat after the killing of the Hisar collector, and land in more than half a dozen surrounding villages was taken into possession by the Britishers.

Khattar, who addressed a rally at Hansi on Saturday, announced the status of a police district to Hansi sub -division. He said there were two systems in a district -- one police and the other revenue.

While some people are in its favour, others are against the demand to make Hansi a separate district. "As decentralization helps in running the administration smoothly, we too want decentralization. To begin with, Hansi would be a separate police district," he added.