HSGMC takes control of Kurukshetra’s Gurdwara Chhevin Patshahi from SGPC

Almost five months after the Supreme Court upheld the validity of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara (Management) Act 2014, the ad hoc committee of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (HSGMC) on Sunday took the control of the management of the Gurdwara Chhevin Patshahi of Kurukshetra.

Considered the headquarters of Haryana’s gurdwara politics, Gurdwara Chhevin Patshahi was earlier under the control of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC).

As per the information, members of the HSGMC’s ad hoc committee led by Karamjit Singh reached the gurdwara and took control from the managers without any protest.

Soon after taking the control, the HSGMC decided that the officials working in the gurdwara will not be removed and their services will continue but now they will report to the HSGMC. Karamjit Singh said the control was taken peacefully as not even a single person was opposing it. He said soon they will take control of the remaining gurdwaras step by step.

Former HSGMC president Didar Singh Nalvi has congratulated the HSGMC for taking control of the gurdwara saying that this is the beginning of the religious freedom of Sikhs in Haryana.

“It is the victory of the Sikhs of Haryana who had to struggle for several years to make gurdwaras free from the clutches of the Badal family,” he added.

He said that the HSGMC will work as per the HSGMC Act.

According to Nalvi, there are a total of 52 gurdwaras in Haryana, including eight historic shrines, and the HSGMC had already taken the control of four gurdwaras earlier. Till Sunday, around 48 gurdwaras were under the control of the SGPC but now he said that the HSGMC will take over all the gurdwaras of the state soon.

The Supreme Court in September last year upheld the validity of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara (Management) Act, 2014, thus paving the way for the HSGMC to control all gurdwaras in the state.

Later, the Haryana chief minister stated that the election to the HSGMC will be held within 18 months and till then the ‘ad hoc committee’ will look after the functioning of the gurdwaras. The Haryana government had constituted a 38-member ad hoc committee to manage, supervise and take over all assets of gurdwaras in the state

In December last year, Karamjit Singh, the chief of the Yamunanagar-based Sewapanthi sect, was elected as the president of the ad hoc committee of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee amid a protest by the outgoing president Baljit Singh Daduwal.

SGPC condemns forcible locking of Kurukshetra gurdwara golaks

AMRITSAR

Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Harjinder Singh Dhami on Sunday condemned the forcible locking of golaks (offering boxes) at Patshahi Chhevin gurdwara at Kurukshetra by Haryana committee leaders.

In a statement, Dhami said the SGPC manages the gurdwaras under the Sikh Gurdwara Act 1925, while the Haryana government wants to seize control over the gurdwaras through police administration. He said the government has formed the Haryana committee with an intention to break the SGPC, the main religious body of the Sikh community.

Dhami said the Sikh community will never tolerate this bullying.