Row over shrine location puts brakes on Gurdaspur bus stand

Ravi Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service
Gurdaspur, January 25

The foundation stone of the new bus stand laid with much fanfare in 2012 by then Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal stands out like a sore thumb, with officials now claiming that the choice of the site was faulty in the first place.

The idea behind the new bus stand was to decongest the roads near the old stand, an accident-prone area.

In 2011, 84.77 acres were acquired on the Tibri road. Of the total land, five acres were earmarked for the project. Officials, however, failed to consider the fact that a gurdwara and a showroom were located in that area.

The politically powerful owners of the showroom created a ruckus, following which the showroom was taken out of the area designated for the bus stand. But the district administration refused to change the location of the gurdawara, citing “religious considerations”.

“Had we shifted the gurdwara, there could have been a backlash from Sikh organisations. Now, we have been caught between the devil and the deep blue sea,” an official says on the condition of anonymity.

On its part, the gurdwara management committee approached the state government with its grievance. The government initially formed a committee headed by then Deputy Commissioner Dr Abhinav Trikha to resolve the matter.

But some months later, the committee was dissolved and a new one under the guidance of the Deputy Director, Urban (Local Bodies), was formed. With the gurdwara management committee refusing to relocate the shrine, the project is in limbo.