CHANDIGARH: Invoking Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s message of ‘Sarbat da Bhala’, Punjab Education and Information & Public Relations Minister Harjot Singh Bains on Tuesday moved a resolution in Punjab Assembly urging the Centre to reopen and regularise Sri Kartarpur Sahib corridor, asserting that the passage is a matter of religious freedom and human kinship for lakhs of Sikh Sangat, not merely a diplomatic road between India and Pakistan.
The resolution demanded that the Union government must take immediate steps to reopen the corridor and keep it operational, simplify visit procedures and engage with the Pakistan government to ensure safe, hassle-free and uninterrupted movement of Sangat to Gurdwara Sri Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan.
Addressing the house, the Minister Harjot Singh Bains stated, “Sri Kartarpur Sahib is the cradle of the principles of Kirat Karo, Naam Japo te Vand Chhako. The corridor is not just a passage, it is a bridge that reconnects the Sikh Sangat with the soil where our Guru Sahib walked.”
The Cabinet Minister said that Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji spent an important phase of his life at Sri Kartarpur Sahib and gave humanity the message of equality, service, brotherhood and Sarbat da Bhala. The corridor represents the aspirations of lakhs of devotees and the pain of families separated by the 1947 Partition.
The restrictions and interruptions in movement through the corridor hurt the religious sentiments of the Sikh community worldwide and deprive devotees of darshan. The resolution urged the Centre to simplify procedures for devotees, especially the elderly and infirm, to enable maximum devotees to visit the holy shrine, he added.
