4 years on, work on Minar-e-Begampura yet to begin

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Garhshankar, December 10

It has been more than four years since the work on the construction of 151-foot-long Minar-e-Begampura had started at Khuralgarh Sahib, the meditation site of Guru Ravidas here. But the work on raising the minar is yet to begin.

The project started on April 3, 2016, during the tenure of the previous SAD-BJP government, but only the raw peripheral structure has got partly readied so far. The contractors have been ruing delay in the payments as the reason for the project work on 12-acre site getting stagnated. The site falls just adjoining the historical Sri Guru Ravidas Dharam Asthan in Garhshankar tehsil of Hoshiarpur. Former CM Parkash Singh Badal, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal and ex-tourism minister Sohan Singh Thandal had inaugurated the project.

Delay in payment stalls work

• The project started on April 3, 2016 during the tenure of the previous SAD-BJP government, but only the raw peripheral structure has been partially built so far.
• Besides the minar, a congregation hall of capacity of 10,000 devotees, 500-seat auditorium and a double basement parking lot were announced to come up for Rs110 crore.
• So far, only the civil work for parking, elevators and the hall has been partly completed. The contractors have been ruing delay in the payments as the reason for the project work on 12-acre site getting stagnated.

Besides the minar, a congregation hall of capacity of 10,000 devotees, 500-seat auditorium with audio-visual aids to showcase life of Guru Ravidas and double basement parking lot were announced to come up for Rs 110 crore.

Industries Minister Sunder Sham Arora had in February last year announced that the minar work would be completed in a year’s time. Two years ago, Finance Minister Manpreet Badal too had visited the site and announced that the work of the project would be expedited but local followers shared that there had been no headway ever since.

Bhai Kewal Singh, president of Sri Guru Ravidas Dharam Asthan, alleged that the present government had failed to keep the promise of completing the project within the timeframe. “They have been too slow with the payments, which is why the contractor seems to be just lingering on the work. Ideally, there should have been 500 men at the site to complete the work, but there are just about 50-odd men. The work remained completely stalled for months. The initial cost of Rs 110 crore too has fallen down to just Rs 86.39 crore”, he shared.

The caretakers said this work was being done from donations received from the devotees. They showed the site where Guru Ravidas had meditated here for four years, two months and 11 days. The site has the stone grinder which Guru Ravidas had been asked to run on the order of Raja Bain. It also has the stones used for weighing grains used in those times.