SAD woos youth with IAS coaching, placement service

NEW DELHI: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today released the party manifesto for the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee elections to be held on February 26, claiming that 80 per cent assurances given in the previous elections had been fulfilled and the remaining would be done on priority basis provided the party is voted to power.

SAD Delhi chief Manjit Singh GK (centre), general secretary Manjinder Singh Sirsa (left) and party candidate Onkar Singh release the party manifesto in Delhi on Monday. Tribune Photo: Mukesh Aggarwal

Syed Ali Ahmed

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 20

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today released the party manifesto for the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee elections to be held on February 26, claiming that 80 per cent assurances given in the previous elections had been fulfilled and the remaining would be done on priority basis provided the party is voted to power.

Delhi unit chief of SAD and DSGMC president Manjit Singh GK said his party did not believe in saying. It believed in working.

Releasing the manifesto, GK said if his party was voted to the DSGMC it would open Khalsa dispensaries in different parts of the Capital, coaching centre for IAS, IPS and CSS aspirants, Khalsa placement employment bureau and Khalsa international placement centre for the unemployed Sikh youths.

He said as Sikh youths, who are active in sports, prefer to go abroad, the SAD would open an international education and sports centre. Keeping in view the religious sentiments of the community, the party will launch free-of-cost travel service for Amritsar.

GK said some children of the community could not go for higher studies. They leave studies after Class X or XII. The SAD would open skill development centre for such students and give scholarships to the students who pursue PhD courses. It would also establish a staff co-operative society so that gurdwara employees could have accommodation after retirement. Besides, Gurmat Taksal, Sikh art centre, health insurance for widows of 1984 anti-Sikh riots, house ownership rights to riot widows, special martial art centre and the Bhai Lakhi Shah Wanjara production centre would also be established, he added.

Addressing party workers and mediapersons, GK said if the SAD was voted to the committee, it would trace non-traceable historical places of the community.

Besides, 550th Parkash Purab of Guru Nanak Dev in 2019 and 300th birth anniversary of Baba Jassa Singh Ahluwalia would be celebrated with pump and show in 2019 and 2018, respectively.

He added that for skilled workers of the community, the DSGMC would establish Bhai Makhan Shah Lubana Haat on the lines of Delhi Haat and multipurpose halls in all zones of the National Capital.

The Bala Sahib Hospital issue has been highlighted for the past many years. GK said his party had decided that to begin with it would start a 100-bed hospital along with a medical college.

The opposition party has laid allegations of misuse of funds in the DSGMC. Having seen this, the SAD has announced to launch an application for the DSGMC so that everybody could have access to accounts and programme of the committee. The committee will also establish a memorial of Sikh journals like Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Akali Baba Phoola Singh and others and would celebrate like Fateh Diwas.