Kotliabluਕੋਟਲਿਆਬਲੁ

Where is Kotliablu?

Kotliablu, also spelled Kotli Ablu, is a large village in Gidderbaha tehsil of Sri Muktsar Sahib district, Punjab, in the Malwa region. The 2011 directory recorded Jaitu, about 12 kilometres away, as its nearest town; Gidderbaha town is about 17 kilometres away and Sri Muktsar Sahib city about 34 kilometres. In the census record it carries village code 035339, covers 3,482 hectares, the largest area of this batch, and has PIN code 151202. The census placed it in the Kot Bhai community development block, named for Kot Bhai. Villages recorded around it include Bhalaiana, Mallan, Sahib Chand and Kishanpura. For political representation the village falls in the Gidderbaha assembly constituency and the Faridkot Lok Sabha constituency.

One village, six panchayats: the kothe of Kotli Ablu

Kotli Ablu is too big for one panchayat. Local government listings divide the single census village among six gram panchayats: Kotli Ablu itself and five named for its kothe, the outlying hamlet clusters that grew up around the main settlement: Kothe Barde Wala, Kothe Cheeddian Wala, Kothe Dhaba Wala, Kothe Hazure Wala and Kothe Kesar Singh Wala, each with its own elected sarpanch. In the current listings all six sit under the Gidderbaha Panchayat Samiti. The kothe are not just administrative names: school listings give the village's government primary schools the names of the clusters they serve, Chak Barde Wala, Chak Chindian Wala, Kothe Hajura Singh and Kessar Singh Wala among them, so a child's school address in Kotli Ablu usually names a kothe, not the village itself. It is best read as a small town of hamlets that the census still counts as one village.

People and work

The 2011 census counted 8,703 people in Kotliablu: 4,516 men and 4,187 women living in 1,591 households, about 5.5 people to a household, the largest households of this batch. Spread over 3,482 hectares, the density works out to about 250 people per square kilometre, the lowest of the batch, because the village's land is so wide. The sex ratio was 927 women for every 1,000 men, also the best of the batch. Children up to the age of six numbered 999, about 11 per cent of the village. Scheduled Castes made up 3,015 people, about 35 per cent of the population, and no Scheduled Tribe population was recorded.

Literacy in 2011 stood at 59.8 per cent among residents aged seven and above, with men at 64.54 per cent and women at 54.74 per cent. The census recorded 3,275 workers, about 38 per cent of the village, the highest share of the batch. Of the 3,176 main workers, the largest group, 1,731 people, were cultivators on their own land, ahead of 963 agricultural labourers and 445 other workers. Only 99 people were marginal workers, about 3 per cent of all workers, so work in Kotli Ablu is unusually steady and year-round. Counting everyone, the village held 1,735 cultivators against 1,021 agricultural labourers: an owner-farming village, the opposite of its labouring neighbours.

Land and farming

Farming covers most of Kotliablu's wide land. Of the village's 3,482 hectares, 2,968 hectares were net sown area in the 2011 record, and every sown hectare was irrigated, almost all of it from canals (2,948 hectares) with wells and tube-wells adding only 20 hectares: this is one of the purest canal villages of the batch, in the old canal colonies of the Muktsar plain. About 279 hectares were under non-agricultural uses and a further 235 hectares were barren or uncultivable. Farm power supply was recorded at 8 hours a day. With its six panchayats farming one canal-served plain, Kotli Ablu's economy begins and ends with its fields.

Schools

Education in the village runs through two government primary schools, one government middle school, one government secondary school and one government senior secondary school, so children can study in Kotliablu up to Class 12. School listings name the village's schools directly: a Government Senior Secondary School Kotli Ablu and a Government Primary School Kotli Ablu, the cluster primary schools of the kothe named above, and a Cooperative School, a private school teaching classes 1 to 10 with its own library, an example of the cooperative schooling tradition of the Muktsar villages.

Health and daily services

Health facilities recorded inside the village in 2011 were a primary health sub-centre, a dispensary and a veterinary hospital, with no community health centre, primary health centre or allopathic hospital. Drinking water came from untreated tap water supplies; treated tap water was not recorded in the village, a real gap for a village of this size. A sub post office stands in the village, but the main post office was recorded more than ten kilometres away, and two more services sat at the same distance: the PDS ration shop and the internet common service centre, both more than ten kilometres off. Against those gaps, banking is in the village, with both a commercial bank branch and a cooperative bank branch, though no ATM, and there is an anganwadi centre; the ASHA health worker was recorded 5 to 10 kilometres away. Only 18 of the census directory's 32 facility fields were positive. Domestic electricity supply was recorded at 12 hours a day, and supply for all users at 15 hours.

Faith in Kotli Ablu

Religious life in Kotli Ablu is local, centred on the village gurdwara and the places of worship of its kothe; no historic shrine of the village appears in the national directories opened for this page. The village did come into the statewide record once, in October 2015, when, as accounts of that year's Guru Granth Sahib desecration controversy record, a fire at the village gurdwara damaged its Guru Granth Sahib bir during the unrest that spread across Punjab that month.

Getting there

A private bus service runs in the village itself, while the public bus service was recorded 5 to 10 kilometres away, on pucca roads. The nearest railway station was recorded more than ten kilometres away, so Kotli Ablu travels by road: Jaitu town is about 12 kilometres away, Gidderbaha about 17 kilometres and Sri Muktsar Sahib city about 34 kilometres.

What is the population of Kotliablu?

The population of Kotliablu was 8,703 at the 2011 census, living in 1,591 households in Gidderbaha tehsil of Sri Muktsar Sahib district.

How many gram panchayats does Kotli Ablu have?

Six. The census village is divided among the Kotli Ablu gram panchayat and five panchayats named for its kothe: Kothe Barde Wala, Kothe Cheeddian Wala, Kothe Dhaba Wala, Kothe Hazure Wala and Kothe Kesar Singh Wala.

Which tehsil is Kotliablu in?

Kotliablu is in Gidderbaha tehsil of Sri Muktsar Sahib district, Punjab. Its census village code is 035339, and its name is also spelled Kotli Ablu.