SGPC passes budget,resolutions;No to Haryana SGPC demand

Amritsar, Mar 30 (UNI) The demand for a separate Haryana Shiromani Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) rocked the annual SGPC General Body meeting today, which approved the total budget expenditure of Rs 330 crore for the year 2007-08 amidst walkout by its Haryana members.

The meeting later passed a resolution similar to the one passed yesterday in Kurukshetra, rejecting the demand for a separate SGPC for Haryana and gave a 15-day ultimatum to the Congress-led government at Centre and in Haryana ''to desist from their evil attempts at dividing and weakening the Sikh community''.

The meeting also authorised SGPC president Avtaar Singh Makkar to chalk out a strategy and take steps to deal with the issue.

During the proceedings, the six SGPC Haryana unit members, led by their president Jagdish Singh, staged a walk-out in protest against the SGPC's ''neglect of the genuine issues of Sikhs as well as the historic gurdwaras in Haryana'' and in support of their demand for a separate SGPC for the state.

The meeting also passed a number of resolutions concerning the Sikh community including handing over of the Amritsar-Nankana Saheb bus management to SGPC, opening of visa centre in Amritsar, speedy completion of the galiara (corrior) around Golden Temple, bridge over Ravi for Kartarpur Langha passage on Indo-Pak border, Sikh representatives on CBSE and Censor boards, transfer of management of Gurdwaras of Bangladesh to SGPC and that Punjabi language be made compulsory till plus two level in the state.

The members specially appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take up the turban issue with the French government.

They also asked the Centre to ensure that the invaluable articles which are part of the Sikh heritage, like Guru Gobind Singh's Kalgi (plume), Maharaja Ranjit Singh's Kohinoor diamond and his Golden Throne be brought back from England and handed over to the SGPC.

The SGPC also demanded that the Centre immediately return the documents and articles taken away during the 1984 Operation Blue star.

Earlier, after SGPC General Secretary Sukh Dev Singh Bhaur read out the budget speech, many prominent SGPC members, taking part in the debate brought up the much-publicised issue of the Haryana demanding a separate SGPC to take care the Gurdwaras dotting the neighbouring state.

Though most Sikh leaders opposed the demand, they also lashed out at the present SGPC leaders as well as Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Sikh religious leaders for the present crisis being faced by the Sikh community.

EDs here pick up suitably from earlier series.

UNI