Tribune News Service

Sangrur, April 11

At the time when nation salutes martyr Udham Singh, who avenged the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, on the centenary of the bloodbath, cow dung cakes and weeds greet locals on the proposed site for a memorial to the martyr on the Cheema road in Sunam, which is the native town of Udham Singh.The authorities have not laid even a single brick for the memorial, while a lone foundation stone exposes indifferent attitude of the government.

Locals had started demanding the memorial around 10 years ago. They sent written requests to the state authorities and protested also. On December 25, 2016, Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal laid the foundation stone of the memorial, while on July 31 last year, the Punjab government announced that it had sanctioned Rs 2.28 crore, but till date not a single penny has reached Sunam.“We have been raising the issue for the construction of memorial for the last more than 10 years. But the insensitivity of the state government could be gauged from the fact that the authorities have not started the construction yet,” said Hardial Singh, who is the grandson of Aas Kaur, cousin of martyr Udham Singh.

Last year on July 31, Cabinet minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot had announced that CM Capt Amarinder Singh had sanctioned Rs 2.28 crore for the memorial to the martyr. He had also said Rs 1 crore as the first instalment in this regard would be released soon and the construction work would commence, but money is yet to be released.

Sunam SDM Manjit Kaur said the state government had released Rs 50 lakh for the construction of memorial to Udham Singh. “The money is lying in the account of the Sangrur administration as we are waiting for the approval of map of the memorial. We are pursuing the matter and hopefully construction will start soon,” she said.