Thursday, February 18, 1999
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REGIONAL BRIEFS | Thursday, February 18, 1999 |
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Life-long devotion to social service WHERE there is a will there is a way" is a veritable fact in the case of Mr Sita Ram Bagla, an octogenarian freedom fighter, social worker and patron of education and music in Sirsa. Though belated the district administration honoured this short-statured man on Republic Day (see photo). Token of "honouring" seems a trifle for this senior citizen, a 'tamara patra' holder and social worker. Born in an affluent family of Sirsa in 1912, Mr Sita Ram Bagla gave up his studies in 1942 to join the freedom struggle. He took active interest in the Quit India Movement. He was one of those who had dreamt of a prosperous free India and therefore took to politics as a social service. He remained DCC president for many years and was elected to the Haryana Vidhan Sabha in 1962. His passion for social service inspired him to undertake rehabilitation of refugees from Pakistan. As a social worker he had the right temperament. He was deeply inspired by Vinoba Bhave and donated 250 bighas of his ancestral land in the Bhoodan Movement. In 1976 he was nominated by the Haryana Government as the member of Bhoodan Board. As a member of the Sirsa Improvement Trust he got a residential colony built for the under-privileged. The first maternity room in the local Civil Hospital was built with donations of Rs 70,000 he collected 35 years back. The credit for starting the Baba Bihari Charitable Trust Dispensary also goes to him. This dispensary serves the poor and needy. Mr Bagla's contribution as a founding member and as the General Secretary of the Sirsa Education Society cannot be ignored. He founded this society to provide higher education at a time when there was no college in this district. This society has to its credit starting of two colleges one of which was later taken over by the government, a senior secondary school and a Shramik Vidya Peeth. Mr Bagla's love for extension education is also evident from his association with public libraries in the city. A unique aspect of this man's personality is his love of music. For him music is the language of God. Hardly is any Indian classical music concert conducted in Sirsa without his presence, irrespective of the weather or time. Birth centenary of litterateur The 100th birth anniversary of great revolutionary poet, S.S Bhikhari of Kavi Kutia (Calcutta) fame who died in 1982 was observed at Amritsar. The builders of nation owe much to the revolutionary poets and writers for they are the eyes of the nation, who enthuse the masses to do or die for the noble cause. Such was the work of the great poet, Bhikari, who was born in (1898) at Amritsar. Kavi Kutia was the first Punjabi literary society established in Bengal in 1922. Its members used to discuss revolutionary compositions on the freedom struggle, social and religious reform, gurdwara reforms and would publish them in the magazine, Kavi (from its own printing press) and later in a Punjabi daily Desh Darpan. Interestingly, it had no building or cottage but its members used to assemble in parks or at his house. Bhikhari was the spirit behind this selfless service. He was born in a Kirti family at Bhangali village at Amritsar district. He had no schooling and had to leave the village at the tender age of 11 to earn a living. He learnt how to handle machines and got jobs at Amritsar, Karachi and Nairobi, where his father was working in a railway workshop during World War I. He settled down at Calcutta. Though he was an engineer by practice yet he had great interest in photography, music and literature. Swaraj and the gurdwara movement had great impact on his writings. During his last days, his house had become a magnet for poets. An engineering blunder A decade or so ago, the nullah draining the western area of Ravens Wood ( now housing the H.P. High Court) in Shimla was filled with earth to serve as a parking lot. This public utility spot is close to the HP Holiday Home. Unfortunately, the aqueduct provided for the discharge of the rain water happens to be too small to cater for the usual run-off, much less accommodate the heavy discharge after a down pour. The design of the park appeared to be a blunder in civil engineering. As a result, whenever there is a rain, the car park becomes a pond, giving the parked vehicles a marooned look. The flooding can be avoided if the existing aqueduct is widened adequately to cater for not only for usual quantity of rain water, but that of a cloud-burst as well. So far as the cleanliness of this public premises is concerned, there is no arrangement for cleaning and scrubbing. The contractor who mans the park ( charging Rs 50 for six hours' parking of a vehicle) makes no effort to clean it. His workmen or chowkidars appear to have the impression that cleaning the area is the government's responsibility while the controlling department appears to have left this responsibility to the contractor. As a result, this parking lot situated in the heart of the town gives an extremely unhealthy look. The state of cleanliness in the government car park above the Inter-State Bus Stand is equally bad. It is desirable that the authorities concerned pay due heed to the "looks" of the parking lots in the town and not to leave these in a state of neglect, if they claim to be genuinely interested in promoting tourism in the state capital. Contributed
by Bhupinder Dharmani, Varinder Walia and K. L. Noatay. |
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