This Punjab village waits for someone to bridge the gap

Having 700 voters,the village is sandwiched between Pakistan border and Ravi river. Persistent demands since 1947 to construct a bridge have proved futile and the only way of reaching the village is by crossing the river in two creaky boats,run by the Public Works Department.

The village has no telephone connection and no direct electricity line. The only post office was shut seven years ago because the postal department employees found it too cumbersome to reach the village. “There is a one- room dispensary. To be fair,the Government has appointed a doctor here at a monthly salary of Rs 35,000. But the doctor has delegated his duties to a class IV employee and runs his own private clinic in Fatehgarh. He comes here once in a week,and the dispensary is closed for the better part of the day. Last week,there was an accident in the village,and the victim died due to lack of timely medical care. Crossing the river and taking the victim to hospital would take a full one hour,” says Jagir Singh,a local.

There is an elementary school (up to Class V) which operates in a gurdwara complex. Two young women teachers have been employed for 40 students.

Disappointed with the kind of facilities available here,many have left Ghaniya Ke Bet. But the village still has over 100 houses,most of them belonging to poor farmers,who are asked to move from the village at the slightest disturbance at the border. “We just can’t leave our property like that. Villagers own around 2,200 acres of land here. In fact,some of our land lies on the other side of the barbed wire. The BSF and Pak Rangers allow us to work on our fields only from 10 am to 4 pm. Our consistent demands for compensation from the Government have been ignored,” says Sukhdev.

In fact,the problems of Ghaniya Ke Bet are symptomatic of the issues being faced by villages along the 553-km border of Punjab with Pakistan (spread across four constituencies of Gurdaspur,Amritsar,Tarn Taran and Ferozepur).

Virsa Singh Valtoha,an MLA from Amrtisar district,says,“During the 1965 and 1971 wars,the Army constructed ditches some distance away from the international border. This ensures that farmers whose fields lie on the other side of the ditches have to make a detour of 10-15 km to access their land. After a lot of demands were made,the Army gave its approval,but no bridges have been constructed.”

The Government refuses to admit that it is oblivious of the villagers’ problems. Sukbhir Badal,Deputy Chief Minister and till recently an MP from Ferozepur (a border district),says: “The SAD-BJP has repeatedly taken up the issues of border villages with the Centre. Their problems are not of their making but due to exigencies of defence. The people have willingly made the sacrifices,so at least they should be compensated. Recently,when Finance Commission chairman Vijay Kelkar visited Punjab,we specially took him on a tour of border district and apprised him of the problems.”