Batala forgets Shiv Batalvi on his 45th death anniversary, no function held

BATALA :The city has the rare privilege of once having a great poet in Shiv Batalvi, whose 45th death anniversary fell on Sunday, but the administration has done little by way of organising a function to pay homage to the poet.

“Eh Lohe Da Shehar te, Pittal de dilan de wasde ne loke aithe” (this is an iron city and people of this city have hearts of brass).

This poem aptly sums up the apathy of politicians, bureaucrats and the people of Batala, about whom Batalvi is said to have written this stanza.

On his death anniversary, nobody paid tributes to this eminent poet, who became the youngest recipient of the Sahitya Academy Award.

To look after the affairs of the Shiv Kumar Batalvi Auditorium here, a cultural society was formed under the chairmanship of deputy commissioner, Gurdaspur, while SDM of Batala was itd ex-officio secretary. For the past several years, Batalvi’s fans used to organise a function on this day every year, but this year, no function was organied even in the auditorium, which now looks a deserted place.

Last year, during the 44th death anniversary of Batalvi, Local bodies and cultural affairs minister Navjot Singh Sidhu had announced that “a state-level function will be held every year in memory of the great poet.” He also announced to hold an International literary festival in November every year to commemorate the poet. However, in spite of the assurance nothing has been done by politicians and bureaucrats, leaving Batalvi fans shocked at the insensitivity of the authorities.

Caretaker of the Batalvi auditorium, Dr Satnam Singh Nijjar, said before Sidhu’s announcement, they used to hold a function every year to pay tributes to the poet, but last year, Sidhu announced to organise a statelevel function and for this purpose, he had met the deputy commissioner and the SDM at least three times in the recent past and urged them to chalk out plans to celebrate the death anniversary. However, he did not receive any response from any of the officers.

Sdm-cum-secretary of the society Rohit Gupta expressed ignorance about the death anniversary of the poet and said that Dr Nijjar never met him for organising a function in this regard.