On the martyrdom anniversary of one of India's most defiant freedom fighters, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann returned to the soil that shaped him — Sunam, the birthplace of Shaheed Udham Singh — and transformed the occasion into a declaration of intent, dedicating development projects worth over ₹107 crore to the town on 1 August 2026.

What Sunam Gets: From Armed Forces Training to Emergency Care

The projects dedicated at the state-level Shaheedi Diwas function span health and defence-preparatory education. The centrepiece is the Sant Attar Singh Maharaj Armed Forces Preparatory Institute, a residential facility designed to train youth from the region for entry into the Indian armed forces — named after the revered early 20th-century Sikh spiritual leader. Alongside it, Mann inaugurated a Trauma Centre, a Medicines Warehouse, and a Blood Bank, filling critical gaps in emergency healthcare for Sunam and surrounding Sangrur district.

Mann also paid floral tributes to Udham Singh at the commemorative function, honouring the revolutionary whose 1940 assassination of Michael O'Dwyer in London — the former Lieutenant Governor of Punjab who had sanctioned the Jallianwala Bagh massacre — made him an enduring symbol of anti-colonial resistance.

Udham Singh's Sunam: Why the Birthplace Still Carries Weight

Udham Singh was born in Sunam, Sangrur district, and the town has carried that identity for over a century. Punjab governments have held annual state-level Shaheedi Diwas observances for him since the 1970s, often pairing the commemoration with local development announcements — a practice that fuses political symbolism with civic delivery. For residents, the day is both a point of pride and, increasingly, a moment to measure what the state actually delivers.

The current Aam Aadmi Party government, led by Mann since March 2022, has continued and expanded this tradition, with a particular emphasis on health infrastructure and defence education in smaller towns that have historically sent large numbers of young men into the armed forces.

A Soldier's Institute Named for a Saint

The naming of the Armed Forces Preparatory Institute after Sant Attar Singh Maharaj — a Sikh spiritual figure of the early 20th century deeply associated with the region — layers religious and cultural resonance onto what is essentially a vocational defence-training facility. For families in the Malwa belt of Punjab, where military service is both economic aspiration and cultural inheritance, such an institute in their own district removes a significant barrier: the cost and distance of training in larger cities.

The trauma centre and blood bank, meanwhile, address a more immediate gap. Sangrur district has long depended on Patiala or Ludhiana for advanced emergency care — a gap that, in road-accident emergencies, can be the difference between life and death.

Sunam now has a sharper answer to the question Udham Singh's legacy always posed: what does the state owe the places that gave it its martyrs? On this Shaheedi Diwas, the answer arrived in concrete, steel, and ₹107 crore.