Fazilka district

This article is about the district. For its eponymous headquarters, see Fazilka.

Fazilka district is one of 23 districts in the state of Punjab in India. The district headquarters of the Fazilka District are at Fazilka.

Fazilka district
District of Punjab
Boundary Marker at Sadqi Border Crossing
Location in Punjab
Coordinates: 30.403°N 74.025°E / 30.403; 74.025
Country	India
State	Punjab
Named after	Mian Fazil Watoo
Headquarters	Fazilka
Government
• Deputy Commissioner	Senu Duggal, IAS
• Senior Superintendent of Police	Avneet Kaur Sidhu, PPS
Area [1]
• Total	3,113 km2 (1,202 sq mi)
Population  (2011)[2]
• Total	1,027,143
• Density	330/km2 (850/sq mi)
Languages
• Official	Punjabi
• Other	Hindi and Bagri
Time zone	UTC+5:30 (IST)
Website	http://fazilka.gov.in/

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.^[3]

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.^[4] 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.^[5]

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

No.	Constituency	Name of MLA	Party		Bench
79	Jalalabad	Jagdeep Kamboj Goldy		Aam Aadmi Party	Government
80	Fazilka	Narinderpal Singh Sawna		Aam Aadmi Party	Government
81	Abohar	Sandeep Jakhar		Indian National Congress	Opposition
82	Balluana (SC)	Amandeep Singh ‘Goldy’ Musafir		Aam Aadmi Party	Government

Administration

The district's chief executive is the Deputy Commissioner. The office is held by Senu Duggal, IAS. ^[6]

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.^[7] The total sex ratio of the district was 894.^[8] The child sex ratio of children below the age of 6 years was 853 for urban areas and 850 for rural areas in 2011.^[9]

Religion

Religion in Fazilka district (2011)[10][a]
Religion			Percent
Hinduism			59.17%
Sikhism			39.90%
Other or not stated			0.93%

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,^[11] 84.97% of the Fazilka tehsil of Firozpur district registered their religion as Hindu and 13.35% registered as Sikh.

Towns in Fazilka District - Firozpur Religion Census 2011^[11]

Towns	Majority Religion	Population	Hindu	Sikh	Christian	Muslim	Buddhist	Jain	Other Religions	Not Stated
Fazilka	Hindu	76,492	84.97%	13.35%	0.89%	0.45%	0.01%	0.25%	0.00%	0.08%
Abohar	Hindu	145,302	83.27%	15.62%	0.42%	0.45%	0.06%	0.12%	0.01%	0.05%
Jalalabad	Hindu	39,525	68.56%	30.75%	0.15%	0.49%	0.02%	0.00%	0.01%	0.03%

Languages

Languages of Fazilka district (2011)^[12][b]

1. Punjabi (68.3%)
2. Bagri (21.6%)
3. Hindi (9.12%)
4. Others (1.02%)

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.^[12]

Notable people

• Navdeep Asija, sustainable transport specialist
• Gurnam Bhullar, singer, from Kamal Wala village of the district^[13]
• 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

1. This accounts for the division of Jalalabad tehsil by assuming the same proportion of religions in rural areas of residual Jalalabad tehsil. Urban area of remaining Jalalabad is Jalalabad town.
2. Languages present in Fazilka, Abohar tehsils, Jalalabad town and the residual rural area of Jalalabad tehsil