Jalandhar: Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) has accused the Arvind Kejriwal government for getting a case registered against them over 200 persons taking shelter in the Gurdwara Majnu Ka Tilla. DSGMC has said it would still continue to “serve the people”, including serving langar to the needy.

The FIR has been registered against gurdwara management. DSGMC manages the gurdwara. DSGMC president Manjinder Singh Sirsa said the devotees stranded in the gurdwara could have been quarantined inside the gurdwara itself, as they had already offered the langar hall to the Delhi government for the purpose. Instead, accused Sirsa, they were shifted to a school where conditions were not hygienic.

“It is bizarre that after shifting them, the official machinery has asked us to provide langar (food) three times a day and have also registered a case against us,” he said.

DSGMC president blamed Delhi government for getting the case registered “to save its officers”. “These people had come to the gurdwara on March 29 and were stranded here due to the sudden curfew and could not go back to Punjab. Most of them are Hindus, while Christians and Muslims are also there apart from Sikhs. We informed Kejriwal and Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh about them on March 30 and then on March 31, to hide their own blunders and inefficiency, the Delhi government officials got the case registered against us,” he said.

He also said apart from serving langar to nearly one lakh persons daily, the sarais (inns) of Delhi gurdwaras had also been provided for accommodating doctors and nurses, as landlords asked them to vacate their houses. “However, the FIR against us will not deter us and we shall continue serving the humanity in this hour of crisis,” he added.

K B S Sidhu objects

Meanwhile, reacting to the FIR against gurdwara management, Punjab special chief secretary (disaster management Covid-19) K B S Sidhu, tweeted, “Instead of lodging an FIR against the gurdwara management, the administration would have done well to notify it as a “quarantine camp”.”

92 medicos in Delhi sarais

Nearly 92 medical professionals, including doctors, are staying in sarais (inns) of historical gurdwaras of Delhi. According to DSGMC, in the 25 rooms of Guru Arjan dev Niwas with Gurdwara Rakab Ganj 45 persons from Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital were staying, 46 from Lady Harding Hospital and Northern Railway Central Hospital were staying at Guru Harkrishan Yatri Niwas with Gurdwara Bangla Sahib and 21 from Safdarjung Hospital were staying in Mata Sahib Kaur Yatri Niwas in Gurdwara Moti Bagh Sahib.

