JAMMU, NOV 16: Yet another of Jammu and Kashmir's pre-Partition heritage is all set to die. This time in the name of art. The state government has decided to demolish the remnants of the century-old Jammu railway station on what used to be the line from the city to Sialkot in Pakistan.It will make way for the upcoming Kala Kendra Complex, a centre worth several crores, to ``preserve art and culture''. But while the government has no qualms demolishing the station to get more space for the complex, it is still not sure what it will ``preserve'' there. ``Anything to do with art and culture,'' is all that officials can say.The line to Sialkot, which was a part of India before Partition, started from Jammu station at what is now Bikram Chowk in the centre of the city. A small building where the station master used to sit, remains of the platform and a gigantic iron pipe that fed the trains with water is all that stands today - reason more that it be preserved.Parts of the station are now been used by the State Transport Corporation (SRTC) as its workshop. The SRTC will have to move, say officials.Jammuites, if not the government, see the station as part of their history. It was on its platform that senior Socialist Congress leader Aruna Asif Ali and Jan Sangh leader Jai Prakash Narain addressed their supporters, defying Maharaja Hari Singh's forces.The elderly still remember how trains in the pre-Partition days brought in happy tidings - until Partition. ``I remember the joy on faces every time the engine throwing embers high up in sky with a blast of whistle used to halt here,'' recalls septuagenarian writer Balraj Puri. ``But the last time the train halted in the winter of 1947, it brought 3,000 souls with nothing but miseries.''Apart from Jammu, there used to be only two other stations on the way to Sialkot - one at R.S. Pora and the other at Suchetgarh. Both have been finished in the violence at the borders. The Jammu station is the only one surviving, says Puri.``In absence of a good road from Sialkot, people mostly came from there by trains on this line. Some would just enjoy the cool waters of the Ranbir canal and return in the evenings,'' remembers 75-year-old Manohar Lal, a businessman. He still talks of the ecstasy experienced when he used to board a train to watch his favourite cricketers playing in Sialkot.Om Goswami, additional secretary of the Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, says he does not know of anything worth preserving in the station, unless there is some painting or any such item. He clarifies that the Kala Kendra complex is being constructed by the Jammu Development Authority (JDA) and that the academy has nothing to do with it. ``But if there is anything other than the building that signifies the railway station that once existed, it should be preserved.''Writer Puri says he had long ago taken up the matter with chief minister Sheikh Abdulah, but in vain. ``For several years, the engine remained there in the open. And now there is hardly any sign of it,'' he says.Shantmanu, who recently took charge as vice chairman of the JDA, says that Rs 2 crore has so far been spent on construction of the Kala Kendra Complex. ``That this railway line is historic is news to me. If there is any such building it should not be demolished. We are asking for the reopening of the Sialkot route to light the candle of friendship. By demolishing the remnants, they are even killing the last hope.''
