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Villagers up in arms after SGPC takes over gurdwara
WSN Network 

GIDARPINDI (JALANDHAR): Fight over a local gurdwara has seen the villagers and the SGPC locked in a bitter dispute. So much so that the villagers of Gidarpindi decided to stop visiting the gurdwara to protest the takeover by the SGPC and are vowing to get it freed from SGPC control. The local police is clearly helping the SGPC and the state government seems to have washed its hands off the fight which could even get violent at some stage. 

The SGPC has taken over not just the Gurdwara Tahli Sahib but also the school, land of which is owned by the Gurdwara. The school has a separate managing committee. The SGPC took the action after last week after some members of the Gurdwara wrote to it for taking control of the shrine but most of the villagers led by Panchayat have said that they were kept in the dark. 

Villagers blamed SGPC member from Shahkot, Shingara Singh Lohian, for the mess since his protégé Mukhtiar Singh headed the Gurudwara Committee and was widely believed to be on the verge of a defeat in the pending elections to the committee. 

The SGPC action came a day before the election. The tiff arose after villagers asked Mukhtiar Singh to present the accounts of the Gurdwara.  

Shingara Singh Lohian said that panchayat of the village did not matter in this connection and justified the action of the SGPC without consulting the villagers. 

Now, the villagers, including 17 of the 25 members of the committee, who went to the SGPC head office, were told by SGPC officials to rather meet Revenue Minister Ajit Singh Kohar and SGPC member Shingara Singh Lohian for regaining control of the Gurdwara. 

Interestingly, SGPC Secretary Joginder Singh, without realizing the import of what he was saying and seeped in the SGPC culture where kabza mentality prevails all around, saod there was nothing  wrong in asking the villagers to seek intervention of a minister as “Kohar Sahib is MLA of the Akali Dal from the area”.

21 January 2009
 

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