Ellenabad

Ellenabad, previously known as Kharial is a city with a municipal committee, near Sirsa City in the Sirsa district of the state of Haryana, India. It is located on the south bank of the Ghaggar River in the heart of Bagar tract areas of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan and serves as a port of entry into the state of Haryana from the Rajasthan side. Its location make it more strategic as not only it is located near Rajasthan border in Haryana but Punjab border is also near to it. Because of this the city has a kind off cosmopolitan culture of Punjabis particularly Malwayi culture, Rajasthani Marwadi culture, Deshwali Haryanvi culture and native Bagri culture and traditions or a mix of all of them or some of them. The Ellenabad city is divided into 17 wards for which elections are held every five years. As of 2011, the city had a population of 52,285, divided between two governing bodies: Ellenabad Municipal Committee with 44,452 persons and Ellenabad Rural Gram panchayat with 7,833. As of 2022, the city is estimated to have a population exceeding 60,000. There has been a rising demand to merge both administrative bodies into one and upgrade it to Municipal Council level. Ellenabad Municipal Committee has total administration over 8,387 houses to which it supplies basic amenities like water and sewerage. It is also authorize to build roads within Municipal Committee limits and impose taxes on properties coming under its jurisdiction.

It is a constituency of Haryana Vidhan Sabha. The current MLA is Abhay Singh Chautala. of INLD.

Ellenabad in itself is a headquarters of Ellenabad tehsil, block, RTO and sub-division in Sirsa district and holds a seat for tehsildar, BDO, TC and SDM respectively. Big villages like Talwara with 9,000 people, Mallekan with 7,000 people and Jiwan nagar with 16,000 people come under jurisdiction of at least one of the mentioned governing bodies. Their population is a nearest thousandth estimation of the 2011 census.

Etymology
Ellenabad was founded by Robert Hutch, the Commissioner of Hisar during the British Raj, whose wife gave birth to a child in the area. The story is that Robert Hutch was the Commissioner of Hisar and his wife Madam Ellena was very fond of hunting. Because the land around Kharial was very grassy with many kinds of animals, madam Ellena always went there for hunting. Once she came here with her companions. She was pregnant. While hunting she started suffering from delivery pains. Then her companions took her to Kharial. The people of Kharial served her like their own relative. Madam Ellena got healthy. When she went to Hisar she asked her husband to do something for Kharial's people. Then Mr. Robert Hutch founded a town on the south bank of the Ghaghar river, and named it Ellenabad after the name of his wife.

Transport
Ellenabad is well connected by railways on the Sriganganagar-Sadulpur railway line. It is 43 km from Hanumangarh and 136 km from Sadulpur. It is planned to be connected to Sirsa and Sardarshahar by train. Ellenabad is situated on state highway number 23 and is 42 km from Sirsa, the district headquarters. Haryana Roadways is the main transport for travelling. Also, there are daily night bus services for Chandigarh, Delhi, Jaipur and Haridwar. Ellenabad also administrates small villages like Kashi ram ka Bass ,Mithanpura, Kishanpura, Karamshana, Dhani Sheran under its greater extended urban region.

Demographics
The Ellenabad Municipal Committee has a population of 44,452 of which 23,559 are males while 20,893 are females as per a report released by Census India 2011. The population of Children in the range of 0 to 6 years is 5437, which is 12.23% of the total population of Ellenabad (MC). In Ellenabad Municipal Committee, the Female Sex Ratio is 884 against the state average of 879. Moreover, the Child Sex Ratio in Ellenabad is around 862 compared to the Haryana state average of 834. The literacy rate of Ellenabad city is 76.19%; higher than the state and national average of 75.55% and 74.04% respectively. In Ellenabad, Male literacy is 82.08% while the female literacy is 69.75%. The next census evaluation by the Ellenbad Municipal Committee was set to take place in 2021 but got delayed due to Covid and most probably its cancelled as of now and latest census will take place in 2031.

Ellenabad has a majority Hindu population, with a significant minority of Sikhs and small Muslim and Christian communities.

Economy
Ellenabad's primary source of income is agriculture. Its grain market provides support to farmers from surrounding villages and daily trains connect Ellenabad to Mumbai, Gurgaon ,Firozpur, Jaipur, Bathinda, Ajmer, New Delhi , Sri Ganganagar, Abu Road, Ahmedabad, Surat, Sikar, Hanumangarh, Churu and Jhunjhunu.

Education
Despite the passage of a quarter of the twenty-first century, there is no government graduate college here. There are only 2 government schools for higher secondary education in the city. There is a huge demand for govt. medical college and hospital in the city along with other higher institutions of education for Bachelors and post graduation. A lot of students translocate to Delhi, Chandigarh and Jaipur for higher degrees due to lack of these institutions. A significant number of students also do daily updown in buses and trains for colleges in Sirsa, Sri Ganganagar, Hisar and Bhatinda.

School level education i.e upto 12th is considerably good here compared to other cities and towns nearby. Students not only from city but nearby villages and towns from Haryana and Rajasthan like Talwara, Tibi, Mallekan, Rania, Nohar, Chaiya, Rawatsar, Chahuwali, Thalarka and Masita Head come here daily for their school studies notably in private institutions for better english medium education. Daily school buses do a lot by providing longer services. Nachiketan Public School, Sarvodaya School Ellenabad, Satluj Public School, Nachiketan Model school and C.R.D.A.V. Public School are the quality education institute. The other most notable schools in the city are Sir Chhotu Ram Jat Senior Secondary School, Nivedita Senior Secondary School,  Sarvpalli Public School, Ch. Harpal Singh Convent School (H.C.S.), D.A.V. Public School, Navjyoti Senior Secondary School, R.R. Memorial School and Saraswati High School. The schools in the city are well known for their English, Science, Commerce and Mathematics departments.

Health care
Nearby hospitals include the Civil Hospital, Janta Hospital, Gupta nursing and maternity home, Jain Hospital, Shri Nursing Home, CMC Hospital, Bansal Hospital, Pareek Hospital, Singla Hospital, Shubham Hospital, Tiwari clinic, Kahlon Child Clinic, Chaudhary Eye Hospital, City Eye hospital and many others.