Amritsar January 30:
High drama prevailed outside Bhai Gurdas Hall when HSGPC (ad hoc) chief Jagdish Singh Jhinda reached there in the afternoon to address a press conference only to find the gates of the premises locked and the police and SGPC task forcedeployed there.
Standing amid waiting mediapersons, Jhinda rang up SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar and said that he, being a member of the SGPC, should be allowed to address the media in the hall. Lamenting that the people accompanying him have not been allotted adequate rooms at SGPC’s sarais (inns), he asked Makkar not to "resort to dictatorship". Later, the gates of the venue were unlocked following Makkar’s intervention.
Addressing the media, Jhinda said he along with his supporters would hold a path of Sukhmani Sahib and perform ardas at Sri Akal Takht tomorrow for the formation of a separate gurdwara committee in Haryana. "We have lost faith in the political parties -- either it is the SAD in Punjab or the Congress in Haryana. Even the SGPC chief has not paid heed to our grievances. Now, we only have faith in the Almighty," he averred, claiming that representatives of Singh Sabhas and other religious organisations from 20 states, including Haryana, would also join him in holding the path today.
Jhinda said he had set up Sarab Pardesh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee on January 1 by including representatives from 20 states of the country in it. The committee headed by him comprises of 41 members. While Inderjit Singh Chugh is the general secretary of the committee, Jhinda claimed that DSGMC chief Paramjit Singh Sarna is its patron. The committee will have its head office at Rakab Ganj in New Delhi and a sub-office at Sector 27 in Chandigarh. He said he would soon get the committee registered, besides framing a separate constitution for it.
Meanwhile, interacting with the media here late last evening, Sarna said the DSGMC had decided to facilitate land for extension of canteen facility and proper roads at Dera Baba Nanak. Taking on the SGPC, Sarna said he was ready for a probe into the accounts of gurdwaras and educational institutions being run by the DSGMC, but the SGPC "is running away from a similar investigation which hints that all is not well". He accused Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal of hampering the resolution of issues concerning Sikhs. "They are exploiting even the SGPC to achieve this aim," he charged.
High drama prevailed outside Bhai Gurdas Hall when HSGPC (ad hoc) chief Jagdish Singh Jhinda reached there in the afternoon to address a press conference only to find the gates of the premises locked and the police and SGPC task forcedeployed there.
Standing amid waiting mediapersons, Jhinda rang up SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar and said that he, being a member of the SGPC, should be allowed to address the media in the hall. Lamenting that the people accompanying him have not been allotted adequate rooms at SGPC’s sarais (inns), he asked Makkar not to "resort to dictatorship". Later, the gates of the venue were unlocked following Makkar’s intervention.
Addressing the media, Jhinda said he along with his supporters would hold a path of Sukhmani Sahib and perform ardas at Sri Akal Takht tomorrow for the formation of a separate gurdwara committee in Haryana. "We have lost faith in the political parties -- either it is the SAD in Punjab or the Congress in Haryana. Even the SGPC chief has not paid heed to our grievances. Now, we only have faith in the Almighty," he averred, claiming that representatives of Singh Sabhas and other religious organisations from 20 states, including Haryana, would also join him in holding the path today.
Jhinda said he had set up Sarab Pardesh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee on January 1 by including representatives from 20 states of the country in it. The committee headed by him comprises of 41 members. While Inderjit Singh Chugh is the general secretary of the committee, Jhinda claimed that DSGMC chief Paramjit Singh Sarna is its patron. The committee will have its head office at Rakab Ganj in New Delhi and a sub-office at Sector 27 in Chandigarh. He said he would soon get the committee registered, besides framing a separate constitution for it.
Meanwhile, interacting with the media here late last evening, Sarna said the DSGMC had decided to facilitate land for extension of canteen facility and proper roads at Dera Baba Nanak. Taking on the SGPC, Sarna said he was ready for a probe into the accounts of gurdwaras and educational institutions being run by the DSGMC, but the SGPC "is running away from a similar investigation which hints that all is not well". He accused Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal of hampering the resolution of issues concerning Sikhs. "They are exploiting even the SGPC to achieve this aim," he charged.
