Fazilka district

History

On 27 July 2011, the Government of Punjab created two new districts: Fazilka district by the partition of Firozpur district, and Pathankot district by the partition of Gurdaspur district.

On 29 January 1970, Gandhi announced the transfer of a part of Fazilka tehsil and Abohar to Haryana. The final transfer of Fazilka and Abohar was to take place by January 1975. The transfer to a neighbouring State of Punjab's cotton-producing belt of Abohar and Falzika was not accepted. On 25 January, the Mathew Commission said that Abohar and Fazilka tehsils of Punjab could not be transferred to Haryana because they were not contiguous with Haryana's border.

Location

It is located next to the border with Pakistan, the border being to its west. It has the district of Firozpur to its north, Sri Muktsar Sahib to its east and Sri Ganganagar to the south and Pakistan to its west.

Geography

It has an extreme climate, with the summers being very hot and the winters being very cold. The River Sutlej runs through the district and moves over to the Pakistan side through the Indo-Pakistani border.

Politics

Administration

The district's chief executive is the Deputy Commissioner. The office is held by Senu Duggal, IAS.

The district is administratively subdivided into three tehsils:

• Fazilka
• Abohar
• Jalalabad

Demographics

According to the 2011 census, Fazilka district has a population of 1,027,143. Scheduled Castes made up 41.51% of the population. The total sex ratio of the district was 894. The child sex ratio of children below the age of 6 years was 853 for urban areas and 850 for rural areas in 2011.

Religion

Hinduism and Sikhism are the main religions of the Fazilka district. The Arora community of Punjabi Hindus constitute a sizeable population in the district. With the migration of the non-Muslim population from Pakistan to India in 1947, they settled here in this region of Firozpur district.

In the Firozpur Religion Census 2011, 84.97% of the Fazilka tehsil of Firozpur district registered their religion as Hindu and 13.35% registered as Sikh.

Languages

At the time of the 2011 census, 68.31% of the population spoke Punjabi, 21.55% Bagri and 9.12% Hindi as their first language.

Notable people

• Navdeep Asija, sustainable transport specialist
• Gurnam Bhullar, singer, from Kamal Wala village of the district
• Lawrence Bishnoi, gangster notable for assassinating Sidhu Moose Wala and killing many others
• Sher Singh Ghubaya, politician and former Member of Parliament
• Shubman Gill, cricketer
• Sunil Kumar Jakhar, Indian politician and president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Punjab
• Surjit Kumar Jyani, politician
• Kunwar Mohinder Singh Bedi Sahar, Urdu poet (shifted to Fazilka after partition)

Notes

References

References

1. "Area of Fazilka".
2. "District Profile at a Glance".
3. "The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Main News".
4. "Khalistan the politics of passion".
5. (15 February 1986). "Rajiv-Longowal accord: Mathew Commission delivers an unexpected anti-climax". India Today.
6. (30 November 2022). "Senu Duggal assumes charge as Fazilka deputy commissioner". The Times of India.
7. "District Profile at a Glance".
8. (21 January 2022). "District-wise Decadal Sex ratio in Punjab".
9. (21 January 2022). "District-wise Rural and Urban Child Population (0-6 years) and their sex ratio in Punjab".
10. "Table C-01 Population by Religious Community: Punjab". [[Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India]].
11. "Firozpur District Religion Data - Census 2011".
12. "Table C-16 Population by Mother Tongue: Punjab". [[Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India]].
13. (24 April 2017). "After 'Awaaz Punjab Di', Bhullar wants to do a 'Dangal'". [[The Tribune (Chandigarh).