Forgotten projects: Stone sinks in pool of apathy

DORAHA: Announcing projects for political gains by governments is nothing new.And these projects are often forgotten even before they could go beyond the foundation stone level. This is what exactly happened with two projects in a village in Ludhiana.

Even after 25 years, a hospital project at Manjhi Sahib in Kotan could never see light of the day . And now its foundation stone has ultimately partially submerged in a pond.

The matter relates to 1992 when late

Beant Singh

was the chief minister of Punjab.The then CM had laid the foundation stone for construction of Shri Guru

Gobind Singh Memorial Hospital

at Manjhi Sahib on March 15, 1992. According to villagers, as the project work never started, the land slowly got converted into a pond due to presence of water source nearby .

In the second case, members of

Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandhak Committee

(SGPC) under the leadership of current chief minister

Prakash Singh Badal

laid a foundation stone of `pukka' (permanent) road to the cremation ground on December 24, 2001. Though the project never kicked off in real terms, the inscribed words on the stone have faded after a passage of 16 years.

Many villagers say that the road was never constructed and only bricks were placed on the stretch. But those bricks too didn't last long.

Mandyala Kalan sarpanch Bhagwant Singh said the village got neither the hospital, nor the pukka road even after so many years.

“Population of our village is 2,000 and there are around 1,350 votes. We wanted a hospital in our area as we need to take patients to Khanna or Doraha which are more than 15 kms from here.“

“These two inauguration stones reveal how promises are made to be broken. Many of our villagers have lost faith in election process because of such broken promises. However, being youths, we do want to see a change and will vote accordingly this time,“ said Manjeet Singh, a villager. He added that they will vote for healthcare and better roads in the village.