SAD seeks removal of cap on devotees visiting Kartarpur Sikh shrine

SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal Tuesday sought from the Pakistan government removal of cap on the number of devotees who pay obeisance at the Kartarpur Sahib and also demanded permit fee waiver for them.

Last year, both India and Pakistan had agreed to construct the Kartarpur Corridor to enable devotees to pay obeisance at the historic Gurdwara in Pakistan's Kartarpur, the final resting place of founder of Sikhism Guru Nanak Dev.

The corridor will link the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Punjab's Gurdaspur with Gurdwara Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur in Pakistan.

Badal said Pakistan has put a cap on the number of devotees to 700 per day and that too for restricted number of days per year.

"Entry fee and permit costs proposed by Pakistan for pilgrims are also very high at Rs 1,600 per person on normal days and Rs 8,000 per person on special days. Pakistan also proposes to restrict this facility for only Indian nationals and People of Indian Origin (NRIs) cannot access it," the Ferozepur MP claimed here.

Describing the cap on the number of devotees and permit fee as "unreasonable", he urged the Pakistan government to "have a large heart".

"The Pakistan government should waive the permit and entry fee for devotees and allow entry of 5,000 devotees on normal days and 15,000 on special days," the SAD chief demanded.

He also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for speedy construction of the Kartarpur corridor.

"The Union government has expeditiously started work on a world class and state-of-the-art passenger terminal building complex as well as an all-weather bridge on the Ravi river to facilitate unrestricted and easy flow of pilgrims," he said.

As much as 50 acres of land had been acquired for project works worth Rs 290 crore.

"The passenger terminal building will be completed by October this year and national highway connecting zero point will be completed by September this year," Badal further said.

He expressed dismay over the construction of a causeway by Pakistan instead of a bridge for the Kartarpur Corridor.

"It is unfortunate that the Pakistan government is indulging in double speak. Pakistan is mouthing platitudes about the work it is taking up to make the Kartarpur corridor a reality, but the fact is that it is constructing a mere causeway on its side instead of a 320 metre bridge," he said.

Badal lauded the prime minister for reopening of cases pertaining to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots by the special investigation team (SIT).

The SAD chief claimed that the Centre had accepted the party's request of scrapping blacklist of Sikhs maintained by Indian missions in countries like Canada, the USA, the UK and Germany.

He said even the official government black list of 314 persons had been curtailed to only 40, adding that travel restrictions imposed on family members of black listed persons had also been removed.