Ministers Tript Bajwa, Randhawa write to Amarinder, ask him to make Batala a dist
CHANDIGARH : Two senior Punjab ministers Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Saturday demanded that Batala should be created as 24th district of Punjab to honour the wish of the people and overall development of the area.
In a letter to chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, the ministers, who belong to Gurdaspur district which covers Batala, said that Batala was a historic town but did not get the focus it deserved.
Bajwa and Randhawa are part of the group of ministers who have opened a revolt against the chief minister expressing their total “lack of faith” in him. They also demanded Amarinder’s removal saying he failed to fulfil some key poll promises.
In the letter, the ministers said the historic towns of Fatehgarh Churian and Sri Hargobindpur
or Ghuman should be made sub-divisions of the new district. They pointed out that Batala was an important city of Punjab with which rich historical, religious, social and literary heritage is associated.
They said Batala, founded in 1465, was the oldest city of Punjab
after Bathinda and also the eighth largest city in the state in terms of population where a municipal corporation was formed last year.
Stressing upon the historical heritage of Batala, they said: “Guru Nanak was married to Mata Sulakhni in this city on July 8, 1487, and Gurdwara Dera Sahib and Gurdwara Kandh Sahib are adorned in his memory. Guru Hargobind, the sixth master, also came to Batala to marry his son Baba Gurditta and in his memory Gurdwara Sat Kartaria is adorned in the middle of the city.”
The ministers said that Batala was an important city of the Sikh Empire after Lahore and Amritsar during the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.