Amritsar, February 2 Shriomani Gurdwara Pharbandhak Committee has appointed five guides to facilitate the foreign tourists who come to Golden Temple to pay obeisance and are keen to learn about the Sikh culture and history behind the Golden Temple and culture of Sikhism.
SGPC IT wing Head Jaskarn Singh said that earlier there were already five Information officers in the Golden Temple but they most of the time remain engaged during the visits of Government officials coming from other States of India or Delhi. It was noticed that foreign tourists when they come here always found curious to know much about the Golden Temple and rich Sikh culture and importance of LANGAR (Community Kitchen) which work around the clock to provide free food irrespective of caste and creed.
There were also big teams of the Task Force of SGPC which always remained in the periphery of the Golden Temple but they were not trained enough to tackle the foreign tourists, therefore SGPC decided to appoint five Guides for this purpose.
In the recent video released by SGPC, a foreign tourist was seen saying “There is fantastic, guides are here, myself and my family were blown away by the amazing accomplishment as the Community has made here, feeding just tens of thousands people per day, this is unbelievable”.
Another elated tourist in the video was saying “It is very amazing, good experience as tourist guides were very kind to tell about everything in the Golden Temple, now I can say that I know more about the Sikh culture and religion”.
SGPC member Gurchran Singh Grewal said that a tourist’s guide will extend help the tourists about the traditions of Sikh culture as before entering here everybody has to cover his head with a piece of cloth and prohibition to carry any kind of intoxicants here.
Moreover, these guides would also keep hawk eyes on suspicious moments here as in past some unwanted incidents happened here, said a SGPC official.
Guide Satnam Singh talking to FW said, “Devotees who come here from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and South States were seen enormously happy to learn about the Sikh religion and its culture as they were getting all the information without paying any cost. Many devotees expressed their gratitude for getting service free of cost. People many times astonished to learn that guides are serving the tourists free of cost. But certainly we are getting a good salary from the SGPC. Earlier, last year in the month of August, SGPC had setup the two “Help Desk” at the plaza outside Sri Harmandar Sahib for providing information to Sangat arriving here. These desks have been set up at the plaza outside Sri Harmandar Sahib. The attendants deputed to give information to the arriving Sangat about history of Sri Harmandar Sahib besides other Sikh shrines, langar (community kitchen) Sri Guru Ramdas Ji, and sarais (inns).
