Ravi Parle villages in pain due to bridge construction not starting in Makura Patan despite notification

Gurdaspur: The anger of the people of 7 villages adjacent to the Ravi Parle Pakistan border has once again become fierce due to non-fulfillment of the demand for a permanent bridge over the Makora fall of Halka Gurdaspur. It is noteworthy that during the 2022 assembly elections, hundreds of people of these villages had boycotted the elections when their demand for the bridge was not met. Even after two years, the construction work of the bridge has not started, due to which the people of these villages and the leaders of Kirti Kisan Union have once again sounded the bugle of struggle. The district administration fears that these people might boycott the elections this time too like in 2022. Let us tell you that this time the district administration is continuously running a campaign regarding the mission of 70 percent pass. If people adopt the path of boycott, this mission of the administration will suffer a major setback.

Let us tell you here that the Central Government had given the green signal to build a concrete bridge in Makora Patan in the year 2021-2022 itself. Not only this, an amount of Rs 100 crore has also been deposited in the Punjab Government’s account for the construction of the bridge, but despite this the construction work of the bridge has not started. In view of the continuous protests of the victims, the Punjab government had issued a notification in this regard about 2 months ago. It was told that after the process of land acquisition of farmers and determination of land rates, tenders will be issued for the construction of the bridge for three months. Leaders of Kirti Kisan Union say that even after 2 months of the notification, the district administration has not considered it necessary to hold a meeting with the land-owning farmers. Due to this his anger is increasing. The villagers also staged a protest under the chairmanship of Kirti Kisan Union, which was headed by former sarpanch Pagari Baldev Singh and Kuldeep Singh.

Kirti Kisan Union leaders, State Vice President Satbir Singh Sultani, Block Secretary Vikramjit Singh Vika, Nirmal Singh and Amrik Singh jointly said that due to non-construction of a concrete bridge in the border area, there will be a complete boycott of the assembly elections to be held in Punjab. It was built in the year 2022, but even after 2 years, the Aam Aadmi Party government of Punjab and the district administration are postponing the construction work of the bridge by making various excuses. Accusing the farmer leaders, he said that recently when the elders of the area went to meet SDM Dinanagar regarding the bridge construction, the SDM said that last time there was a boycott of the assembly elections in the area, hence this time 90 percent voter turnout was recorded in the first Lok Sabha elections. Get votes, then the bridge will be built, otherwise it will not be built. Criticizing the attitude of the SDM, it was decided in the meeting that a district level rally would be taken out on April 24 against such behavior of the administrative officer. In which the next struggle will be announced against stopping the construction of the bridge by the Punjab government and the district administration. Here it will also be decided whether the elections to be held on June 1 should be boycotted or not.

Next action regarding the bridge will be taken only after elections, SDM

On talking to Dinanagar SDM Gurdev Singh Dham in this regard, he clarified that he has not set any condition for the residents of Ravi Parle villages to vote 90 percent. He definitely said that if you vote as much as possible then the administration will be happy and will work quickly on the file related to the bridge. Giving clarification on not holding a meeting with the farmers even after two months of the notification, the SDM said that this action has to be taken within 60 days of the notification. Of course, according to the farmers, it has been 2 months but according to us, 60 days will be completed on 19th May. The date of notification is calculated from the day of publication in the newspaper. In response to the question of when the bridge construction will start, the SDM said that the election code of conduct is still in place. Apart from this, another notification is also to be issued in this regard. Only after this the action will be implemented.