Amritsar, October 13: Even as barely six months are left for the Jallianwala Bagh centenary, the historic spot is a picture of neglect.
The Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Trust, which is responsible for its upkeep, is facing a fund crunch.
Despite the fact that the high-profile trust is run under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister, no provision was ever made to reserve a corpus for the maintenance of the memorial spread over 6.5 acres.
An official said, “The survival depends on the rental income generated from its building hired by Punjab National Bank and interest accrued from government securities that comes to roughly Rs 5.5 lakh per month, which is not enough to sustain and maintain the site.”
Despite it being declared a heritage site by Union Minister Arun Jaitley, the century-old structures that share its boundary wall are on the verge of collapse, the bullet markings are missing at several points. The dusty paths and heaps of garbage point towards lack of maintenance. Installed in 2010, the 52-minute light and sound show equipment with
Amitabh Bachchan’s voiceover has been lying defunct for more than five years.
Similarly, the 18-minute documentary that was shown through a projector daily in seven shows at a 50-seat hall, too, has been discontinued. The washrooms’ are in dismal state and the newly renovated ones are found to be locked.
Under the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Act, 1951, the Prime Minister is the chairperson of the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Trust. The other permanent trustees are the Congress president, Punjab Chief Minister, Governor, Union Culture Minister, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and three eminent persons to be nominated by the Centre.
The Trust remained under the control of the Congress, as it occupied the Centre berth most of the times.
MP Virendra Kataria, Rajya Sabha member Ambika Soni and former MP Harvinder Singh Hanspal, who had completed their five-year term on May 24, 2018, have been replaced just a day before with Rajya Sabha MP Shwait Malik, former state Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and former MP Tarlochan Singh.
With the change of command, Malik was optimistic to bring a change. He said a high-level meeting had already been held on October 9 in New Delhi, which was chaired by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and attended by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Union Culture Minister Dr Mahesh Sharma, former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Governors of six states.
Source Tribune India
