SGPC, DSGMC to start 'langar' in quake-hit Nepal

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Managing Committee (DSGMC) will airlift 25,000 food packets daily for earthquake-hit Nepal from Monday and also make arrangements to start 'langar' (community meal) for the affected people in Kathmandu.

Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Sunday directed the SGPC and DSGMC to start air-lifting the food packets to Kathmandu every day.

Following this direction, the DSGMC held an emergency meeting on Sunday at Gurdwara Bangla Sahib in New Delhi and decided the first consignment of 25,000 packets will be air-lifted to Kathmandu by the Indian Air Force (IAF) on Monday morning, said its president Manjit Singh G.K.

Badal asked both organizations, which manage gurdwaras (Sikh shrines) in Punjab and Delhi respectively to pool resources to prepare a 'langar' for 10,000 people at Kathmandu till such time that it is required.

He said that he would himself coordinate with the IAF to ensure that the food packets reach the affected people quickly.

Manjit Singh said that the IAF was being requested to make arrangements to air-lift 10 tonnes of raw material to Kathmandu for preparation of fresh langar, while 20 volunteers and around the same number of cooks would also be airlifted to Kathmandu to operationalise the langar.

"This will be started at a central place in Kathmandu in consultation with the Nepalese government," he said

Noting that Sikhs and Punjabis have always been at the forefront in providing succour in times of natural calamities be it the recent floods in Kashmir or those in Uttarakhand earlier, Badal said: "Even this time, we will do our best to mitigate the sorrows of our Nepali brethren."