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Stop misleading people over prasad distribution: Capt to Akalis
The Punjab CM said SAD leaders for trying to incite minds against the state government through deceptive statements.
Stating that the SAD leadership’s was misleading the people on a sensitive religious issue, Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday held that the decision to bar distribution of prasad at religious places was of the Centre’s, of which the SAD was an integral part.
“My government had never believed in interfering with the customs and practices of any religion, but was constrained by the guidelines of the Union home ministry,” said Amarinder, flaying SAD leaders for trying to incite minds against the state government through deceptive statements.
How could the state government be held responsible for prohibiting prasad distribution at gurdwaras or other places of worship when the Union health ministry had issued the SOPs to be followed at religious places, the CM asked. It was the MHA that had taken the decision, under the National Disaster Act, to allow opening of religious and some other places from June 8, and had subsequently asked various central ministries to issue the necessary guidelines for the same, he pointed out.
As a Union minister, SAD leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal and her party must surely have been consulted before the issuance of the SOPs on the reopening of religious places with effect from June 8, quipped Amarinder.
Harsimrat should have put her foot down then, and insisted on allowing distribution of prasad, instead of protesting later and wrongly putting the blame on the state government, he added.
“Infact, I had already directed the state’s additional chief secretary (home) to issue instructions for distribution of langar at the gurdwaras in conformity with the Centre’s guidelines. I would be writing to the Prime Minister to allow distribution of Prasad at religious places,” the CM said.
