Punjab CM-led delegation to meet Modi, seek passport waiver for Kartarpur

The delegation also pressed for simplification of the process for visiting the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh will lead an all-party delegation to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to seek waiver of passport and further simplification of the process for visiting the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara and to urge him to pressurize Pakistan to slash the $20 fee on Indian pilgrims.

A resolution to this effect was passed unanimously in the Vidhan Sabha on Tuesday.

The Chief Minister, while intervening on MLA Gurpartap Singh Wadala's suggestion that the state government should take up these issues with the Centre, asked him to simultaneously take up this issue with Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal in order to prepare the ground for early resolution in the larger interests of the devotees.

Meanwhile, moving the resolution, Punjab Cooperation Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said after the Kartarpur corridor opened on November 9, 2019, after decades of prayers by the Nanak Naam Leva Sangat, the corridor's history would be written in golden letters, he said.

Pointing out that at present, any Nanak Naam Leva devotee, who intends to visit Kartarpur Sahib for Darshan-Didar, requires passport identification, besides paying a fee of $20, the resolution points out that many of Punjab's residents are such who do not possess passports and are deprived of visiting Kartarpur Sahib despite being desirous of 'darshan'.

Apart from this, devotees are facing lot of hardships due to the difficult process of online registration, which is a major hurdle for devotees, as a result of which many devotees are not going for 'darshan', said the resolution.

Through the resolution, the House strongly recommended to the Punjab government to take up these issues with the Union government so that the latter could impress upon the Pakistan government to "remove the condition of passport and, in lieu of it, other documents like Aadhar card should be permitted for identification".

The resolution also urged the Centre to take up with Pakistan the issue of simplifying the cumbersome procedure for registration by the devotees on the website of the government of India.