Badal slams U’khand govt for arresting Sikh devotees enroute Haridwar on Gurpurab

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Thursday condemned the Uttrakhand government for preventing a Sikh religious group from entering Gurdwara Gyan Goddari in Haridwar and arresting them on the way.

"The religious sentiments of a sect must be kept high, as our constitution advocates to adopt a secular approach to give due respect to various rituals and rites of religions. Any act against it must be condemned by all," Badal said.

The chief minister, who was at the two-day sangat darshan at Gaggar village in Lambi, said it was an old habit of the Congress to unnecessarily interfere in the religious affairs of the Sikhs.

"On the one hand, the Delhi Congress government was being unjust to Sikhs by not conducting Delhi Gurdwara Sikh Management Committee elections, and on the other, the Congress government in Uttrakhand had hurt the sentiments of the Sikhs by stopping the religious yatra and arresting devotees," said Badal. Taking the example of Punjab, he added that the state government gave due respect to all religious sects to maintain communal harmony in Punjab.

Replying to a question regarding threat of Pakistani fundamentalists after the execution of 26/11 convict Ajmal Kasab, Badal said the Punjab government had made all the necessary security arrangements. "There is no threat to peace in the state," he added.

Regarding coal shortage in thermal plants of Punjab, Badal said the state government was aware of the situation and efforts were being made to get uninterrupted coal supply. He further said that he had written to his counterpart in Jharkhand to seek his personal intervention to sought out the issue at the earliest.

He also told mediapersons that the state was striving hard for 100 per cent supply of potable water in urban and rural sectors on priority basis. "Due to the anti-farmer policies of the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, agriculture has become a non-profitable profession," Badal added.

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