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Haryana CM advocates separate SGPC
for Haryana
The Haryana Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda
has strongly advocated the formation of a separate
Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandhak Committee (SGPC)
for managing the religious places of Sikh community
in Haryana.
The Chief Minister was speaking on a non official
resolution on formation of a separate SGPC in
Haryana. This resolution was introduced by a
Congress MLA, Nirmal Singh in the on going assembly
session here Thursday.
Emphasising the fact that Sikhs were a minority
community in the State, he said that, it therefore
became the moral duty of the State Government to
value their sentiments and protect their
interests.
He recalled that even before the Assembly elections
were held in the State, the Sikh community had
approached several leaders of the Congress Party
and requested them to include this issue in the
party manifesto. As a consequence of this, the
Congress manifesto included the issue of formation
of a separate SGPC for the State.
Citing another example which amply reflected the
concerns of the Congress Party towards the minority
community, he said that village Ghasera in district
Mewat had been declared as a model village
primarily to respect the feelings of the Muslim
community which had been residing there since even
before partition of the country.
He recollected that the Father of the Nation,
Mahatma Gandhi accompanied by freedom fighter, Ch.
Ranbir Singh had visited this village during the
days of partition to urge the Muslims residing
there not to leave the country as their interests
would be fully protected.
Hooda said that it had been a tradition of the
Congress Party to always protect the interests of
the minority communities and the formation of a
separate SGPC was a step in this direction. He
regretted that the opposition especially the
Indian National Lok Dal had not participated
constructively in the discussions held regarding
this important issue of the State.
The Chief Minister informed the House that the
Committee set up under the Chairmanship of
Agriculture Minister, H.S. Chatha for examining the
demand of a separate SGPC was yet to submit its
report although a huge majority of affidavits
received by the Committee had advocated a separate
SGPC for the State.
Hooda further said that when he had visited the
Golden Temple at Amritsar to pay obeisance there,
he had made it clear that the formation of a
separate SGPC was being actively considered by the
Haryana Government to respect the wishes of the
Sikh community residing in Haryana.
The motion for formation of a separate SGPC was
moved by Nirmal Singh, MLA from Naggal. Speaking
on this resolution, the Parliamentary Affairs
Minister, Randeep Singh Surjewala informed that
there were more than 100 Gurudwaras occupying 3536
acres of land in Haryana having assets worth Rs 500
crore and an annual income of about Rs 100 crore.
Surjewala clarified that this income of Rs 100
crore contributed to the SGPC Punjab was not
adequately reflected in their accounts thereby
ignoring the interests of the Sikh community of
Haryana. He added that only an amount of Rs 18
crore was shown as income from Haryana Gurudwaras
out of which no funds had been utilised for the
educational and social welfare of the Sikhs of
Haryana.
Elaborating on the discrimination meted out to
Sikh community of Haryana, he said that despite
huge contributions made by Haryana Gurudwaras to
the Punjab SGPC, not even a single Khalsa Higher
Secondary School was being run in Haryana as
compared to 34 such schools being run by SGPC in
Punjab. Similarly, as compared to four medical
institutions run by SGPC in Punjab, not even a
single institution had been set up in Haryana. No
measures had been taken by the Punjab SGPC for
providing any social security such as setting up of
old age homes and vocational training centres for
the Sikh community of Haryana.
The resolution was actively supported by several
other members of Haryana Vidhan Sabha. |
