Poor management prevails at the ‘general bus stand’ in Tarn Taran causing harassment to the passengers besides resulting in no substantial gains to the state exchequer. The bus stand located at a vantage point had a double storeyed building spread over three acres to provide all facilities to the passengers and roadways staff. But it has been in vain. The bus stand is close to the National Highway 54, making approach easy to all sides, including Delhi, Chandigarh, Rajasthan, Jammu amp; Kashmir etc. To provide better facilities to the passengers and the staff, specially employees doing their night duty on the first floor of the building, there are nine rooms to be allotted to roadway employees reaching the depot late at night for rest and to the private bus operators for their requirement on rent. There is one big hall for a restaurant. Twelve shops were built on the ground floor to be given on rent. On the upper floor, only one room was acquired by the roadways staff and the rest have been lying unused. The restaurant has never been given on rent ever since it was constructed. The bus stand was inaugurated in June 1996 by the then Punjab Chief Minister Harcharan Singh Brar and Manjinder Singh Bitta who was then the Transport Minister. A thick layer of dust was seen on the first floor from where the ceiling fans have been stolen and only pipes without fans existed. There were reports that the first floor was used by anti-social elements at night as there was no watchman. Of the 12 shops on the ground floor, only six could be taken by the shopkeepers on rent. The toilets for men and women was in unhygienic condition emitting foul smell. The roadways staff said due to the careless attitude on the part of officials, most long-route buses never enter the bus stand and go directly from the bypass causing loss to the state exchequer and resulting in harassment to the passengers who have to walk a distance of one kilometer to the bus stand or the bypass to board long-route buses. The employees said the entry of buses would create a rush and also pave the way for shops to be hired on rent. The officials said just Rs 4,500 is collected as adda fee at the entry of the bus stand and Rs 12,000 (approximately) is collected from the bypass daily for which the department has deputed its employees. The employees said it was all due to lapse on the part of officials as there was only one employee on duty and the remaining more than ten posts including that of the station supervisor were vacant. Traffic manager Bhupinder Singh was of the view that the bus adda was being run well as proper sanitation facilities existed besides other amenities for the passengers.
NRIs for boost to sports
NRIs in Khadoor Sahib seek views from locals. Photo by writer
NRIs belonging to the area have been seriously thinking of doing something special to boost sports so that local players can make it to the international level. The NRIs who had come to attend ‘Khedan Khadoor Sahib Dian’ recently elicited views in this regard from sport lovers. They had donated funds for organising the ‘Khadoor Sahib Khedan’. NRIs Bhupinder Singh, Navjot Singh Khehra, Sarabjit Singh USA, Amarjit Singh and other were of the view that the elders should do something special to attract the youth towards sports to create awareness against drugs. The NRIs were informed that wrestlers like Banta Singh Valtoha, Santokh Singh Bahadur Nagar, Dara Singh Dulchipur, Dara Singh Dharmuchak, Teja Singh Cheema, Wasan Singh Sheron and Arjun Singh Dhotianhad have brought laurels to the area. The NRIs said they must remain in touch with local residents to establish a sports academy to provide coaching to players so that they can strive to attain international standards.
(Contributed by Gurbaxpuri)
