Amritsar : The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has decided to establish its press in the United States of America (USA) and publish the holy saroops (scriptures) of Sri Guru Granth Sahib. This press will be established in Tracy city of California, where the Dharam Prachar Kendra (religious preaching center) of the SGPC will also be functioning. Moreover, a religious preaching center will also be set up in Yuba City in the USA. This decision has been taken in the SGPC’s executive committee (EC) meeting held today under the chairmanship of SGPC President Advocate Harjinder Singh Dhami at the Sikh body’s office in Amritsar.
Addressing the press conference after the EC meeting, SGPC President Harjinder Singh Dhami said that the late Didar Singh Bains gave 14.5 acres of land to the SGPC at Yuba City, where activities will be started by building a Dharma Prachar Kendra. Along with this, another center of SGPC will be established in Tracy city of California as per the offer made by non-resident Indian Sikh Gian Singh Sandhu of Canada and eminent businessman Karnail Singh Sandhu of USA. A press will also be set up at this center in Tracy to publish holy saroops of Sri Guru Granth Sahib in order to provide them as per the demand from the community in USA and Canada. He said that Gurdwaras will also be established in these two centers and the Sangat will also get religious literature there.
He informed that as per the demand of the Sangat in Australia, the SGPC will ship 220 holy saroops as per Maryada by the sea in a special bus. The SGPC President said that these decisions have been taken in view of the huge demand for holy saroops from the Sikh community across the globe.
Giving information about other decisions of the EC, the SGPC President said that Sri Guru Ramdas Library situated in the complex of Sri Darbar Sahib Sri Amritsar will be digitized and a separate website of this library will be prepared and the titles and indexes of important books will be published on it. The purpose of this development is to familiarize the researchers with the literary treasures in this library so that they can use the books available here for their research work as per their needs. He said that this library was established in the year 1927 and at present it has a large number of important books.
Dhami said that the SGPC has also decided to launch a campaign to make Guru’s city Sri Amritsar clean and green. He said that the present Punjab government has failed to keep the city clean and green by neglecting the religious importance of Sri Amritsar. Because of this, the SGPC will work to make the passages leading to Sri Darbar Sahib and its surroundings beautiful and green.
He also said that keeping in view of the Panthic contribution of former head granthi of Sachkhand Sri Harmandir Sahib Giani Jagtar Singh and Sikh historian Swaran Singh Chuslewarh, their portraits will be installed in the Central Sikh Museum.
Apart from this, Kunwar Amritbir Singh, a 21-year-old Sikh youth from Umranangal village in Gurdaspur district, will be honoured with an amount of Rs 51,000 for making a world record of doing 86 pushups on fingers in one minute and breaking the record of Bruce Lee.
As per the SGPC President, the book ‘Truth About Nabha’ will also be published after its Punjabi translation besides organising special congregation dedicated to the 100-year centenary of Nabha Day on September 9, 2023. He informed that special attention will be given to the re-publishing of old important books, under which, a new edition of the book ‘Sachi Sakhi’ by Sirdar Kapur Sahib has been published and released. Along with this, the list of Punjabi books available in Sri Guru Ramdas Library has also been published.
The EC has also approved the 4% dearness allowance installments for the SGPC employees.
However, the SGPC EC has also strongly condemned the act by the office-bearers of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (HSGMC) (ad-hoc) nominated by the government for tarnishing the image of the Sikh community. Dhami said that during a meeting of the HSGMC in Panjokhra Sahib on August 14, the abusive language used by office-bearers against each other has hurt the sentiments of the community across the world. With this act, it has been proved that these office-bearers of HSGMC have failed to run the management of Gurdwara Sahibs in a proper manner. He said that the action of HSGMC office-bearers is unforgivable, due to which they have no right to stay in the management of the Gurdwaras.
The SGPC president also severely criticized the voter forms printed in the Hindi language by the Haryana government for gurdwara elections in the state. He said that despite being the second language in Haryana, Punjabi is not being given due respect. Printing of forms in Hindi for HSGMC elections is an example of this discrimination. Dhami demanded that this discrimination be stopped immediately and voter forms for Gurdwara elections should be printed in Punjabi as well. Along with this, proper place should be given to Punjabi language in the government offices in the state of Haryana.
