Elevate Amritsar to new division: Residents

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 15

Ahead of the 2022 Assembly elections, the chorus for setting up a new administrative division headquartered at Amritsar is growing.

At present, the holy city falls under the Jalandhar division, which has several districts. Each division is headed by a Commissioner who is a senior IAS officer.

Residents of Àmritsar, Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur and Pathankot, who have some business with the divisional office at Jalandhar, will also be relieved of long travel.

Manmohan Singh Brar, a retired executive officer, says there were five divisions in the state and the number of districts in each division is totally irrational. For instance, Jalandhar division with its jurisdiction across eight districts including, Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Àmritsar, Tarn Taran, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahr besides Jalandhar is heavily burdened. The smallest division is of Roop Nagar that includes only two districts – Mohali and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar districts.

He pointed out that these two divisions — Jalandhar and Roop Nagar — show total irrationality regarding the number of districts governed by their respective commissioners.

“To rationalise the number of districts in Jalandhar division, the government must create a new ‘Àmritsar division’ and the districts of Tarn Taran, Àmritsar, Gurdaspur and Pathankot should be included in this. Jalandhar division looks after Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Nawanshahr,” he said.

Hardip Singh Chahal, another city resident, said the Beas river will be the common boundary of two divisions Àmritsar and Jalandhar. This decision will improve the administrative efficiency of tourism, business and trade of the holy city. The divisions, districts and sub-divisions with lesser areas and limited population is the need of the hour for providing effective and efficient administrative services.

Other three divisions are Faridkot, comprising Faridkot, Bathinda and Mansa districts, Ferozepur division, which administratively controls Muktsar, Ferozepur, Fazilka and Moga districts, besides Patiala division, which has Patiala, Barnala, Ludhiana, Sangrur and Fatehgarh Sahib.