SGPC wants control of Amritsar-Nankana Sahib bus service

Amritsar, Dec 20 (UNI) The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) today demanded that it should be given control of the biweekly Amritsar-Nankana Sahib and Amritsar-Lahore bus services.

In a charter of demands submitted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar outside the Golden Temple complex here, the SGPC pointed out that Sikh pilgrims were facing hardships in getting visas from New Delhi for pilgrimage to the shrines in Pakistan on the two bus services.

The charter further pointed out that added to the visas problems was the cumbersome process of security clearance by the police which at times takes a month or so.

''As a result of these problems the buses to Lahore and Nankana Sahib have not been able to attract many pilgrims ever since these were introduced in January and March respectively this year,'' the charter of demands said.

The SGPC said that it would provide space for a visa center inside the Golden Temple complex and pilgrims going to or coming from Pakistan could be accomodated in the 'serais' (rest houses) in the Golden Temple complex.

''The SGPC can coordinate with the Indian and Pakistan authorities to make the visa process easy,'' the charter added.

Another demand listed in the charter was to ensure the release of all Sikhs detained in prisons across the border.

The SGPC also demanded that the Prime Minister should take up with Pakistan the long standing Sikh demand for providing a 'corridor' to the Sikh pilgrims from India, desirious of paying obeisance at Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib which lies few meters from the international border with Pakistan across the Ravi river in the Dera Baba Nanak sector of Gurdaspur district.

The Shiromani Committee claimed that the Pak-government was willing to provide a 'corridor' on its territory to the shrine, where Guru Nanak stayed in the last few years of his life and breathed his last.

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