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Medical college row: Tractor march taken out in Punjab’s Sangrur
Chief minister Bhagwant Mann had on Sunday slammed the Dhindsa and Badal families for ‘joining hands’ to stall work of the Sangrur medical college for their ‘vested political interests’
A tractor march was carried out by Sangrur residents on Monday against the Dhindsa family, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) for allegedly stalling work of a medical college.
The march to seek withdrawal of a case filed by the SGPC in the high court saw at least 400 tractors.
Chief minister (CM) Bhagwant Mann had on Sunday slammed the Dhindsa and Badal families for ‘joining hands’ to stall work of the Sangrur medical college for their ‘vested political interests’.
The SGPC had in August 2022 moved Punjab and Haryana high court, claiming ownership of the 25-acre land that was donated to the Punjab government by a trust set up by Baba Darshan Singh, mukh sewadaar of Gurdwara Sachkhand Angitha Sahib, for the construction of Sant Baba Attar Singh State Institute of Medical Sciences in Sangrur.
The court had ordered to maintain the status quo.
Role of Dhindsa and SAD
Gurdwara Sachkhand Angitha Sahib owns over 186 acres of land in Mastuana and Rajpura. The shrine was built in 1946 by Akal College Council Gursagar Mastuana Sahib.
The council was set up in 1923 by Sant Baba Attar Singh to manage the institutions located in Mastuana. Later, the council also set up Sant Attar Gursagar Mastuana Trust, whose chairperson is Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa since 1987.
On Monday, its secretary Jaswant Singh said, “The dispute over the land is between the SGPC and the Sant Attar Gursagar Mastuana Trust. Neither Punjab government nor Baba Darshan Singh are part of the case.”
He said Baba Darshan Singh was an employee of the council and deployed at Gurdwara Sachkhand Angitha Sahib. “But he left the job in 2017 and donated the land to the medical education and research department. The land belongs to the gurdwara which was built by the council. Therefore, he had no right to donate it,” he added.
SAD’s spokesperson and former Akali minister Daljit Singh Cheema said, “The SGPC owns the land. Even in the past, the court has given all decisions in SGPC’s favour. The government fraudulently tried to take SGPC’s land through a third person, but failed. Now CM Mann is blaming the SAD, its president Sukhbir Singh Badal and the SGPC. If he (CM) is convinced that the land doesn’t belong to the SGPC, he should start the construction of the college instead of blame game.”
Former SGPC chief Gobind Singh Longowal said, “Gurdwara Sachkhand Angitha Sahib was declared a Sikh gurdwara under the Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1925. Therefore, neither Baba Darshan Singh nor Sant Attar Gursagar Mastuana Trust is the owner of the land.”
Though the SGPC has said that Baba Darshan Singh gifted the land despite the stay by the high court, Sangrur deputy commissioner Jitendra Jorwal said, “There is no stay in the revenue record and the land has a clear title.”
Saying that everything was being done as per the law, Baba Darshan Singh said, “Dhindsa and Akali families are playing politics by stopping the construction of the college.”
