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Seeds of hatred cannot grow on Punjab’s fertile land: CM Bhagwant Mann
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has launched the Mukh Mantri Tirath Yatra scheme, providing free travel, lodging, and other facilities for residents wishing to undertake pilgrimages. The scheme, which will cost ₹40 crore ($5.6 million), allows pilgrims to visit religious sites across the country on air-conditioned trains and buses. Free food, accommodation, local travel, and medical assistance will also be provided. The scheme will last for three months and is open to all residents of Punjab.
Punjab chief minister (CM) Bhagwant Mann on Monday launched the Mukh Mantri Tirath Yatra scheme to provide free travel, lodging and other facilities to residents who wish to undertake pilgrimage to various places in the country.
Under this ₹40-crore scheme, which was started on the birth anniversary of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak, pilgrims will be able to visit religious places such as Hazur Sahib in Nanded, Patna Sahib, Anandpur Sahib, Talwandi Sabo, Varanasi, Mathura, Vrindavan, Mata Naina Devi temple, Chintpurni, Ajmer Sharif among others on air-conditioned (AC) trains and buses free of charge.
Facilities such as food, local travel, welcome kit and AC accommodation will also be provided free of cost to the pilgrims. A team of doctors, volunteers and officials will be travelling with them to take care of any emergency.
All residents of Punjab are eligible to avail this scheme and the pilgrims will be selected by deputy commissioners concerned. Those above the age of 75 will be allowed to bring young attendants.
The scheme was officially launched from Dhuri in Sangrur, in the presence of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha.
Addressing the gathering here, CM Mann said the state government started this scheme to facilitate pilgrims who are unable to visit these sacred places due to financial constraints and other reasons.
He said more than 50,000 pilgrims will be availing this facility over the next three months, adding that 13,000 will travel on trains, with 13 trains carrying 1,000 passengers each leaving every eight days. The remaining will be travelling on buses, with 10 buses leaving every day, carrying 43 people each.
The CM said the scheme is in line with the teachings and philosophy of Guru Nanak who preached universal love, brotherhood and peace. He further said, “The land of Punjab is very fertile, anything can grow here but the seeds of hatred cannot grow.”
Mann said this scheme was first started by the Delhi government, and then replicated in Punjab.
Speaking at the event, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal said that in the last 75 years, no government had ever started such a scheme to facilitate people. “So far over 80,000 people in Delhi have availed of this scheme. About 80% of the beneficiaries are women and senior citizens,” he added.
The Punjab CM also launched the Aata Dal Scheme to deliver food supplies at people’s doorsteps.
First batch of pilgrims leaves for Nanded
Meanwhile, the first batch of pilgrims left Amritsar railway station for Hazur Sahib in Nanded, Maharashtra, around noon.
Around 300 pilgrims from Amritsar, 200 from Jalandhar and 500 from Dhuri were on this train, said Kejriwal during his address. The first batch was flagged off by Punjab ministers Harbhajan Singh ETO and Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal from the campus of Guru Nanak Dev University from where they were taken to the Amritsar station in buses.
CM Mann saw off pilgrims headed for Nanded at Dhuri railway station.
SAD terms scheme a publicity stunt
The Shiromani Akali Dal on Monday termed the AAP government’s Mukh Mantri Tirath Yatra scheme a “publicity stunt” while stating that a scheme for pilgrims was originally launched by the Akali government, led by then CM Parkash Singh Badal, in 2016.
In a statement issued here, former minister and senior SAD leader Daljit Singh Cheema said the Bhagwant Mann-led government was trying to befool Punjabis with the relaunch of the scheme. “It is a propaganda exercise to divert people’s attention from its administrative failures,” he said.
He also raised questions on the government’s decision to limit the scheme to only 52,000 persons. He also said that it was clear that the Mann government is doing this only to garner votes during the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as the scheme has been launched only for three months – till February 2024.
He said when the Akali government launched a scheme to send pilgrims to Hazur Sahib in 2016, it ran successfully for a whole year before the Congress government came into power in 2017 and junked it.
