Chuharchakਚੁਹਰਚਕ

Where is Chuharchak?

Chuharchak, also written Chuhar Chak, is a large village in Moga tehsil of Moga district, Punjab, in the Malwa region. It carries census village code 034022 and must be kept distinct from the smaller Chuhar Chak of Dharamkot block elsewhere in the same district. The census recorded Moga town, about 20 kilometres away, as its nearest town, and Moga serves as both tehsil and district headquarters. Chuharchak covers 2,058 hectares and has PIN code 142053. It falls in the Moga-I community development block. The census recorded one gram panchayat, Chuharchak, while current LGD listings divide the village between two gram panchayats, Chuhar Chak and Nawan Chuhar Chak. For political representation it sits in the Nihal Singh Wala assembly constituency and the Faridkot Lok Sabha constituency. Villages recorded around it include Dhudike about 2.5 kilometres to the west, Ajitwal to the north west, Killi Chahlan to the north and Madoke to the south west, with Daudhar beyond them.

Birthplace of a chief minister: Lachhman Singh Gill

Chuharchak's place in Punjab's history is the birth of Lachhman Singh Gill in 1917. Gill worked in the Punjab Works Department and then as a building contractor in Delhi in the 1940s under the noted Sikh contractor Sir Sobha Singh, before joining the Punjabi Suba movement in the 1950s. He rose in the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, becoming its general secretary in 1961, won the Jagraon assembly seat in 1962 and the Dharamkot seat in 1967, and served as education minister in the United Front government of that year. On 25 November 1967, after breaking with that government, he formed a minority government with Congress support and became Chief Minister of Punjab. His government lasted until 22 August 1968, and its lasting decision was to make Punjabi the official language of the state from 13 April 1968. He died at Chandigarh on 26 April 1969. The village article also names Jagjit Gill, the director of the celebrated Punjabi film Putt Jattan De, among the village's own. Neither man has an entry in the Jugti people collection, so both are recorded here as people lane candidates, not links. A Charanjit Kaur Gill was recorded as the village's sarpanch as of December 2018.

People and work

The 2011 census counted 8,137 people in Chuharchak: 4,281 men and 3,856 women living in 1,670 households, about 4.9 people to a household, the smallest households in this batch. Spread over 2,058 hectares, the density works out to about 395 people per square kilometre. The sex ratio was 901 women for every 1,000 men, the best in this batch. Children up to the age of six numbered 913, about 11 per cent of the village. Scheduled Castes made up 3,525 people, about 43 per cent of the population, the largest share in this batch, and no Scheduled Tribe population was recorded.

Literacy in 2011 stood at 69.74 per cent among residents aged seven and above, with men at 72.38 per cent and women at 66.81 per cent. The census recorded 2,564 workers, about 32 per cent of the village, and almost all of them, 2,509, were main workers: only 55 people were marginal workers, by far the fewest in this batch, the mark of a village where work is year round. Of the main workers, 997 were cultivators working their own land and 996 were agricultural labourers, level with each other, ahead of 499 other workers, with household industry workers making up the rest. Counting everyone, the village held 1,000 cultivators against 1,021 agricultural labourers.

Land and farming

Farming at Chuharchak runs on tube-well water, and an unusually large share of the village is already built up. Of the village's 2,058 hectares, 1,413 hectares were net sown area in the 2011 record, and every sown hectare was irrigated: 1,285 hectares from wells and tube-wells and just 128 hectares from canals, the reverse of canal country. About 645 hectares, nearly a third of the village, were under non-agricultural uses such as the settlement, roads and ponds. Facility listings name wheat, rice and maize among its crops. Farm power supply was recorded at 8 hours a day, against 12 hours for domestic use.

Religious life

The village article records that Chuharchak's people are mainly Sikhs, with a Hindu minority, and its worship runs through the village's gurdwaras. Map listings name a Gurdwara Sahib at Nawan Chuhar Chak, the newer settlement that now has its own gram panchayat, while no shrine of the village is nationally known and no other gurdwara could be verified individually by name from opened sources. The village's fame rests not on a shrine but on a school founded in 1904 and a son who became chief minister.

Schools

Education in Chuharchak runs through one government primary school, one government middle school, one government secondary school and one government senior secondary school, recorded in 2011, so children can study in the village up to Class 12. The senior secondary school carries a long history: the village article records that it was established as Khalsa High School in 1904, one of the oldest school foundations in this programme. School listings date the government primary school at Chuhar Chak to 1953 and add two private primary schools, a private middle school and a private secondary school in the wider facility record. The village also has an ITI for girls, recorded in the village article. For degree study, the village article notes that most students go to the government college at Dhudike, a few kilometres west.

Health and daily services

The 2011 Village Directory recorded no human health facility inside Chuharchak: no community health centre, primary health centre, sub-centre, allopathic hospital or dispensary, while a veterinary hospital served its livestock, so the plain statement that no health facility for people was recorded in the village in 2011 is correct for this record. Care has come since: current listings describe a primary health centre and a community health centre in the village today, with the nearest sub-centre within a kilometre. Drinking water in 2011 came from untreated tap water supplies, treated tap water not being recorded. Chuharchak has both a post office and a sub post office of its own, and an internet common service centre in the village. Banking was available in the village itself, with a commercial bank branch, though no ATM was recorded in 2011 and a cooperative bank and the PDS ration shop were both within 5 kilometres. The village also had mobile phone coverage, an anganwadi centre and an ASHA worker: 20 of the census directory's 32 facility fields were positive, the fullest record in this batch.

Getting there

Chuharchak corrects its earlier description on buses: both public and private bus services ran in the village itself in the 2011 record, on pucca, all-weather roads. The nearest railway station was recorded within 5 kilometres, and the village article names Ajitwal station, about 4 kilometres away, as its station. Moga, about 20 kilometres away, is the hub for administration, markets and onward travel.

What is the population of Chuharchak?

The population of Chuharchak was 8,137 at the 2011 census, living in 1,670 households in Moga tehsil of Moga district.

Which tehsil is Chuharchak in?

Chuharchak is in Moga tehsil of Moga district, Punjab, in the Moga-I block. Its census village code is 034022 and its PIN code is 142053.

What is Chuharchak known for?

Chuharchak is known as the birthplace of Lachhman Singh Gill, Chief Minister of Punjab from November 1967 to August 1968, whose government made Punjabi the official language of the state, and for a school founded as Khalsa High School in 1904.