Badungar for enacting All India Sikh Gurdwara Act

Sarbjit Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 14

SGPC chief Kirpal Singh Badungar today said he was all for enacting the All India Sikh Gurdwara Act and would strive hard to get it done.

The SGPC chief said that the draft of the Act had been sent to the Union Home Minister long back. The ministry had raised certain objections after going through it.

“We will do whatever is required to update it and send it back to the Home Ministry,” he said.

The enactment of the All-India Sikh Gurdwara Act was an important demand in the Anandpur Sahib resolution. Though the draft was submitted to the Union Home Ministry, it was perceived that the Shiromani Akali Dal was not interested in pursuing the matter. For that reason, it remained buried for years. Badungar gave a fresh thrust to it today.

He said the SGPC would set up a committee of 31 Sikh NRIs settled in various countries. The committee would be made an associate of the SGPC and would take up the issues related to NRI Sikhs at the appropriate level.

“We are preparing a list of people to include in the committee. One member will also be taken from Pakistan,” he added. “Sikhs face many religious issues abroad like the one related to turban in France. A need has been felt to form a committee to address such issues and take those up at the diplomatic level through the proper channel — the Government of India,” he said.

“Another 31-member committee will also be set up. Except the states represented by the SGPC, representatives of Sikhs from all other states where Sikhs are settled in the country will be made members of this committee to address the issues raised by them,” he said.

He said that important religious issues are often raised by Sikhs settled in the South, North-East and other regions.