Patiala: The project to construct Shaheed Udham Singh memorial in Sunam of Sangrur district, which was supposed to be completed by July this year, has come to a standstill. The contractor said he was not being paid and the officials claimed fund crunch. Today is the birth anniversary of Shaheed Udham Singh, who hailed from Sunam.
The contractor has halted the work saying his bills for the construction of boundary wall, to the tune of Rs 35 lakh, were not cleared. Both the district administration officials and state culture and tourism officials alleged dearth of funds.
“The work of around Rs 1.35 crore has been completed and the boundary wall has been completed. Now, the work has been halted only due to shortage of funds. The government is yet to clear my dues of Rs 35 lakh. I have been making rounds to get my dues cleared but in vain,” said contractor Balwinder Singh.
Meanwhile, additional director of Punjab tourism and culture department, Lakhmir Singh said, “The dues of the contractor will be cleared soon, as the file has been sent to finance department”.
The foundation stone for this memorial was laid by Punjab’s former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on December 26, 2016 ahead of assembly elections. However, the next year Congress came into power. On the 80th martyrdom day, Punjab Congress minister for tourism and cultural affairs, Charanjit Singh Channi inaugurated the work on July 31, 2019. Punjab CM Amarinder Singh had then missed the event but Channi who presided over as chief guest had laimed that the construction work of Shaheed Udham Singh memorial will be completed within a year.
The memorial in freedom fighter’s hometown was to be set up at Sunam-Bathinda highway at a cost of Rs 2.64 crore over four acres of land. Designed by Punjab’s Chief Architect, the memorial will include Shaheed Udham Singh’s statue made up of metal, open-air theatre, landscaping, park, parking area, cafeteria etc and other ultra-modern facilities.
In 1940, Shaheed Udham Singh assassinated Michael O’Dwyer, the former Lieutenant Governor of Punjab in British India, to avenge the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre.