Late Hockey Olympian Surjit Singh’s statue facing humiliation for five years
Indian hockey is at cloud nine after team India sealed a berth in London Olympics by inflicting a crushing defeat on France Sunday evening at New Delhi. Nearly 500 kilometers away from the national capital, in the Punjab’s Batala, a statue of legendary fullback player of Indian hockey team Surjit Singh, who represented India in 1976 Montreal Olympics, continues to stand near a filthy drain for almost five years now.
The Hansali drain in Batala was originally dug up as a flood protection channel, but over the years it has earned the dubious distinction of a filthy pond with waste from different areas in the industrial down making its way into the drain.
The officials of irrigation department claim that even the sewage waste makes its way to the drain. The Batala Municipal officials, however, deny the charge saying that it is the responsibility of the irrigation department to ensure the cleanliness of the drain. “Some people throw their waste articles and carry bags in the drain. And it is the responsibility of the Irrigation department to ensure its cleanliness,” says Batala Municipal Committee Executive Officer Rajesh Khokhar.
But, the Irrigation department blames the pathetic condition of the drain to the lackadaisical attitude of Batala Municipal Commitee. “I have been here for nearly seven years with one year break after I was transferred out. The Hansali drain continues to be a filthy pond with Batala MC turning a deaf ear to stop the inflow of waste, including the sewage waste into the drain. We keep on writing to the MC, but without any positive response from their side,” says Batala division Irrigation Junior Engineer Jasbir Singh.
While the two departments continue to indulge in the blame game over the pathetic condition of the drain, Surjit Sports Association, a Batala based club which is among those who figure in the inauguration stone of the statue, says that the drain was duly cleaned when the statue of Surjit Singh was put up.
“The drain was cleaned when the statue was installed. In fact, there was a proposal to name the chowk after Surjit Singh. There was a proposal to cover the bridge,” says Surjit Sports Association spokesperson Pirthipal Singh. “We are thankful to then chief parliamentary secretary Jagdish Sahni for providing us the land to get the statue installed,” Pirthipal Singh added, underlining that the place where the statue had been installed was the “best in town” as it caught the attention of the onlookers.
Former Sports Director of Punjab and another noted fullback player who represented India, when contacted, admitted that it was not good to install the statue of such a great player at a place which had filthy surroundings. “As far as my knowledge goes, it was installed by some club and the government and sports department had no role in it. But, even then the place for the statue should have been proper. I would speak to Gurdaspur Deputy Commissioner,” Pargat Singh said.
The curtain from the statue was jointly unveiled by then BJP chief parliamentary secretary Jagdish Sahni and Punjab Director General of Police Rajdeep Singh Gill on June 24, 2007.
Surjit had made his debut in the second Hockey World Cup in Amsterdam in 1973. He also played for India in three Asian Games and was top scorer in 1978 Asian Games. Surjit died in a car accident in 1984 near Kartarpur in Jalandhar in a car accident. In 1998, he was awarded Arjuna Award posthumously.