Signature campaign to be intensified by pracharak groups in villages & educational institutions
Amritsar, January 23 -The signature campaign of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) will intensify it sdrive for the release of Bandi Singhs (Sikh prisoners) as the pracharak (preacher) groups will take this campaign to village level. This signature campaign was started on December 1, 2022, under which, lakhs of proformas have been filled by the people.
Presently, the SGPC is getting the proformas demanding release of Sikh prisoners filled at about 90 centres in the historical Gurdwara Sahibs.
To intensify this campaign, the pracharak groups will take this campaign to the village level besides educational institutions, stated in a relese issued here today.
SGPC general secretary Gurcharan Singh Grewal said that although the SGPC had been raising its voice for release of Bandi Singhs through various means, it is now being taken forward with a motive to develop the issue as a mass movement under the signature campaign. He said although the legal procedure is also being adopted, taking forward the people’s sentiment to the governments is extremely important.
He said accordingly, a signature campaign was started, under which more than 10 lakh proformas have been filled so far. He said that now this campaign will be intensified in its final phase and students would be made a part of it in educational institutions. Apart from this, the process has been started to fill the proforma at the village level. He said that the devotees are enthusiastically participating in the signature campaign centers at Gurdwara Sahibs, but many people who could not come to the Gurdwaras and fill the proforma, efforts are being made to make them a part of it. He said that wherever the events are held by the pracharak groups under the Dharma Prachar (religious preaching) movement, an appeal is being made to the Sangat to fill the proformas.
Grewal said that after completing the process of filling these proformas, the filled proformas along with a letter in the name of the President of India will be handed over to the Governor of Punjab after fixing a date and time.
He said that apart from Punjab, the signature campaign has received a great response in different states as well. Proformas are being filled through Sikh missions in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, etc. Along with this, thousands of people from abroad are also connected with the signature campaign online. He said that some social organizations in Nagaland and Tamil Nadu have also voluntarily cooperated in filling the proformas. He appealed to the Sangat to cooperate and support in this Qaumi (community’s) cause of the signature campaign for the release of Sikh prisoners, so that the voice against the discrimination with Sikh prisoners is taken up to the governments.
