STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Sikh Progressive Front (SPF) led by Balvinder Singh held a daylong convention here on Saturday, which was attended by cross sections of Sikh community of J&K besides representatives of various Sikh organisations. The main agenda of convention was to impress upon the Government to conduct elections, which are already due since last 18 months and were delayed for one or another reason. All those, who spoke on occasion, were unanimous on getting the elections conducted without any further delay instead of constituting/nominating adhoc committees to run daily affairs of Gurdwaras. It is pertinent to mention here that earlier experience of such adhoc committees has not been as per Gurdwara Endowment Act, as these committees continued for years together thereby hurting sentiments of Sikh community.
Speaking on the occasion, Balvinder said, “So-called nominated bodies were framed through backdoor selections and were not as per aspirations and traditions of Sikh community, as in the past. Further, mechanism devised for framing these committee were not transparent and without proper notification and mandate of Sikh community. However, if it is at all inevitable to farm adhoc committees, these should be for the shortest period and prior to it, Government should declare dates of election process, otherwise apparently it will be considered as interference by the Government in Sikh Gurdwara affairs.”
The other most important issue discussed on the occasion was celebration of Parkash Purab of Guru Gobind Singh, falling on January 5, 2022. Balvinder Singh congratulated DGPC for taking a decision in this regard as per the commitment made in their election manifesto of year 2015.
Prominent among those who spoke during the convention included Surjit Singh, Rajinder Singh, Makhan Singh, Navtej Singh, Jagmohan Singh Raina, Gurdev Singh, Manjit Singh, Surinder Singh, Sharanjit Singh, Ajmeet Singh, Amrik Singh, Narinder Singh Khalsa, Jatinder Singh Lucky and Manjit Singh Khalsa.