Footfall dips at Golden Temple, several shrines shut partially

GS Paul

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, April 5

For the first time, the SGPC has partially shut the doors of several historic shrines located inside the Golden Temple and near Gurdwara Shaheed Baba Deep Singh.

Apart from suspending the operations of number of its offices to avoid ‘sangat’ visit, the SGPC has also suspended the ‘akhand path’ roster that were regularly scheduled by the devotees at 15-20 spots inside the Golden Temple complex. Sources said no new bookings were being accepted.

As per the SGPC’s roster, there are around 1.4 lakh devotees in the queue to hold this 48-hour ceremony performed by Sikh priests on their behalf at the distinguished four spots – Dukh Bhanjani Beri, Har-ki-Pauri, Gumbad Path and Akal Takht.

Similarly, the single window of ‘jodha ghars’ and ‘gathri ghar’ was operational, whereas the rest of them were closed down.

Even as these steps were apparently being taken to discourage the devotees from coming to the complex, the SGPC officials were reluctant to accept it.

Nonetheless, the doors of Gurdwara Baba Atal Sahib situated to the south of the Golden Temple and Gurdwara Mata Kaulan Sahib, also known as Gurdwara Kaulsar Saheb on its west-side, were today found to be partially closed. Kaulsar is one of the five holy tanks (sarovars) in the holy city.

Similar obstruction were placed at the entry points of Gurdwara Ramsar located along the Ramsar sarovar, and Gurdwara Bibeksar Sahib situated on the banks of Bibeksar Sarovar.

Nonetheless, the entrance doors of the Golden Temple complex were open, although even as there is a significant drop in the number of devotees.

Golden Temple manager Mukhtiar Singh said the footfall of devotees had come down to just two digits since the imposition of curfew.

“On the part of the SGPC, there is no restriction on devotees. The doors of ‘guru ghar’ can never be closed. The gates of some of the shrines were partially closed to prevent the entry of stray dogs and cattle,” he said.

Meanwhile, Durgiana Temple and Ram Tirath Sthal too were shut down to avoid rush of devotees as a precautionary measure. Durgiana committee president Ramesh Sharma said the entry for devotees was restricted due to the curfew. “To maintain the rituals, we have curtailed the number of priests too,” he said.