Hazur Sahib, October 25
Unprecedented upsurge of devotional fervour has been witnessed during the tercentenary celebrations of Guru Granth Sahib’s Gurta Gaddi Diwas here even as Sikh babas from Punjab, Haryana and Delhi set up separate langars.
Many babas have spent crores of rupees to organise community kitchens for devotees, who have started thronging Sachkhand Hazur Sahib and other historical Sikh shrines. They have enough ration to serve langar for more than one month though the celebrations may come to an end in the first week of November.
Baba Maan Singh of Pehowa, Haryana, said his dera would serve 300 dishes, including Chinese, gol-gappas, ice-cream, etc, during the celebrations. He had to bring ration worth Rs 1 crore from Hyderabad as ration demand had picked up in the local market.
Baba Makhan Singh of Amritsar said his dera had spent more than Rs 10 lakh on the purchase of dry milk. More than 500 quintal of atta, 200 quintal of pulses and 1,000 tins of ghee would be consumed at these community kitchens.
However, the babas feared the ration might not be consumed fully due to low turnout of devotees.
The huge pandals, put up by the Sachkhand Hazur Sahib Management Committee at a cost of Rs 60 crore, are quite at a distance from the main shrine. Though the Takht management has arranged 350 buses to ferry devotees from the campsite to the main shrine, all of them would not like to travel that far for the langar only, he added.
Baba Makhan Singh said the management was charging rent for the tent facility, which was unheard of in Punjab. The city did not have enough hotels or government accommodation.
Punjab Bhawan, constructed with the grant of Rs 8 crore given by the Punjab government, and SGPC’s serai were yet to be fully furnished.
However, the Hazur Sahib management had built sufficient number of rooms in the serai of Takht Hazur Sahib. The Nishkam Sewa Jatha of the UK had got constructed an NRI serai, having 148 rooms.
Every house here has virtually been converted into serai with local residents receiving guests from far-flung areas.
Meanwhile, the SGPC got cancelled three trains from Amritsar to Nanded. Its president Avtar Singh said they had withdrawn Rs 5 lakh from the Railways deposited for train service because those did not get good response from the devotees. One of the reasons for the low turnout could be Diwali.
