Gurdaspur, December 6, 2024 (Navroze Bureau) – : Despite the facility of opening the way for the darshan of Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib located in Pakistan 5 years ago, the devotees who want to visit this Gurudwara Sahib are facing disappointment in many cases. Under this, there is anger among the devotees due to not getting any slot from 20 to 30 December for Indian citizens to apply during the December holidays.
Dilbir Foundation Amritsar’s President Gunbir Singh said that the Central Government had started the formalities of opening this corridor on 9 November 2019. Of course, since that occasion, devotees have been going to Pakistan and demanding many things including removal of the passport condition for visiting the final resting place of Guru Nanak Dev Sahib Ji, but the demand has not been fulfilled yet, but still the devotees fulfill all the conditions and go with full enthusiasm to visit the said Gurudwara Sahib.
Many devotees want to go, but they are being deprived of visiting Gurdwara Sahib due to not being able to fulfill the conditions. He said that it was announced to open the corridor that 5,000 devotees (10,000 on special days) would be allowed to go to Kartarpur Sahib daily, but later during the Covid pandemic, this corridor remained closed for a long time and was reopened on 17 November 2021.
During that year, 10025 devotees enjoyed the pilgrimage. In 2022, 86097 and in 2023, 96555 visited this holy place. He said that now when everything is fine, devotees are still being prevented from visiting Kartarpur Sahib on the days of their choice, an example of which is now seen in the closure of all slot bookings from 20 December to 30 December. He said that due to these December holidays, children have time and Guruparv is also on these days.
Along with this, devotees coming to Sri Harmandir Sahib from different places also want to go to Kartarpur Sahib. Due to this, the number of devotees can increase even more during these days. But there is anger among the devotees due to the slots being closed. On one hand, the concerned authority claims that despite the arrangement for 5000 devotees to go, on an average 250-300 devotees go. But on the days when more devotees want to go, slots are not being given for booking.
He also expressed anger that despite the formation of Dera Baba Nanak Development Authority in 2019, very little work has been done towards the all-round development of the area, its road infrastructure and amenities. Dilbir Foundation has appealed to the Union Ministry of External Affairs to resolve this issue. Foundation President Gunbir Singh also appealed to the Punjab State Government and Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee to take up this injustice with the Central Government as soon as possible and help in rectifying it.