SGPC appreciates bus service to Nankana Sahib

Amritsar, Mar 30 (UNI) The Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) today lauded Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for starting the Amritsar-Nankana Sahib bus service.

A resolution passed in the Budget session meeting of the General House of the SGPC said a long standing demand of the Sikhs for linking the holy cities of Amritsar and Nankana Sahib had been fulfilled. The meeting was presided over by SGPC chief Avtar Singh.

The resolution reiterated the demand made to the Prime Minister that the management of the Amritsar-Nankana Sahib bus should be entrusted to the SGPC. ''It is a religious 'yatra' (pilgrimage) bus, so the SGPC should have a say in its running'', the resolution adopted in the General House at the Teja Singh Samundri hall inside the Golden Temple complex here stated.

The resolution also called upon the government to set-up a visa centre in the Holy City so that the visits by pilgrims to shrines in Pakistan could be made easy.

The SGPC had presented a memorandum on this issue to the Prime Minister when he visited the city for flagging off the bus to Nankana Sahib on March 24.

Through another resolution the SGPC also sought the government's intervention to grant missionary visas for Bangladesh for 'granthis' employed by it for service at Sikh shrines in that country. The resolution referred to the depleted state of historical gurdwaras in Bangladesh and urged the government to grant permission to the SGPC for deputing granthis and sewadars in consultation with the Bangladesh government.

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