Two contrasting pictures stand out starkly in Sansarpur village on the outskirts of Jalandhar. On the one hand, inadequate sports infrastructure coupled with garbage littered byways; on the other, houses adorning hockey and Olympic Games insignias. With 14 Olympians and over 300 national and international players under its belt, the village has earned the sobriquet of ‘Mecca of hockey’ in Punjab but seems to have fallen off government radar. And as elections approach, the locals want to hit back.
Aggrieved villagers have threatened to boycott the elections and even asked political parties to stay away. The village doesn’t have a ground of its own and despite assurances from several political parties it struggles to have basic sports infrastructure. Sansarpur falls in the Jalandhar Cantt assembly segment.
“The irony of the whole matter is that the village comes under the constituency of MLA Pargat Singh who has been an Olympic-level hockey player himself,” lamented village sarpanch Sonu Gill. allotted so that the youngsters can be encouraged and can practice.
The houses adorned with signs of hockey sticks and the insignia of the Olympic Games are testimony to the passion and the inspiration the game has been for the generations that went by and for the generations coming. Some of the people have left the village to live in the cities but their houses are a source of inspiration for the youth.
“We have grown up in this village seeing these walls which remind us of what our fellow villagers have achieved,” said Varinder Singh who has represented Sansarpur at the state level in hockey. Akali Dal government seems to be the only semblance of sports infrastructure here.
There is a wall in the ground that has pictures of all the Olympians from the village including two who have represented Canada and Kenya, said Singh.
Sukhwinder Singh, 22, who has played at the junior national level, laments that he could not continue practicing due to lack of facilities in the village and even nearby. With the elections just a few days away now, locals are hoping this would be their best chance to have their pending work done, especially to get an enhanced facility for hockey. “At present, matches of only six a side can be played in that small ground,” said Paramjit Singh, another resident, who has been actively involved in the development work of the village.
Every house here has a story of an achievement made or one in the making. The villagers are hoping that the new government will enable them to at least get things moving for the betterment of hockey and Sansarpur.
Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News here.
,