Sarna soon to commence ‘kar sewa’ of gurdwara Dera Sahib in Lahore

With the management of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) “failed” in its attempts to secure ‘kar sewa’ of Gurdwara Dera Sahib in Lahore, opposition group led by Paramjit Singh Sarna is now all set to undertake the task.

With the management of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) “failed” in its attempts to secure ‘kar sewa’ of Gurdwara Dera Sahib in Lahore, opposition group led by Paramjit Singh Sarna is now all set to undertake the task.

Sarna, along with his brother Harvinder Singh, returned home on Sunday after a three-day trip to Pakistan, where they met members of the Pakistan Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC) and discussed the renovation and upkeep of Sikh’s historic shrines in Pakistan. They also visited Gurdwara Dera Sahib, and assured the PSGPC that they would begin kar sewa once the rain in the region ended. The duo appreciated the PSGPC for having allotted the kar sewa to their group.

They also appreciated the PSGPC’s move to allot the kar sewa of another historic shrine Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC). The SGPC is an elected body of the Sikhs and fully competent for undertaking the task at gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib, which has been lying in a state of neglect mainly due to its location — close to the Indian border along the Ravi. It is visible from Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district.

“SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar is a true Sikh, and has been running the affairs of the gurdwara body very well. It is due to the interference of the Badals that the SGPC suffers,” Sarna stated, while talking to the media here.

“The creation of a new post of the chief secretary and the appointment of a “Badal’s man” to the post is a clear indication that the Badals want complete control over the SGPC. Makkar will be cut down to size by this new appointment and he will not be allowed to function freely,” he added.


DSGMC under debt

Levelling allegations of corruption against DSGMC chief Manjit Singh GK and secretary Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Sarna, who is also the president of the Akali Dal (Delhi), regretted that the funds of the Delhi committee were being “misused” by the Badals for promoting their own business and political interests. He claimed that a bank deposit of `98 crore that he left behind when he relinquished charge of the DSGMC had “disappeared”.

“From a profitable body, the DSGMC is now in the red and does not have money to pay the salaries of its employees in time,” he claimed. Referring to the allegations of corruption that were levelled against him, Sarna said not a single charge made by GK had been proved in three years that he had been in office. Even the charge of financial bungling in the Baba Balla Sahib Hospital case had not been proved by GK till date, he added.

Sarna advised GK not to function as a puppet of the Badals and save the DSGMC from total ruins. He claimed that GK too had tried to secure the ‘kar sewa’ of Gurdwara Dera Sahib, but the PSGPC did not oblige him as it was well aware of the way things were now being managed in the Delhi gurdwara body.