Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday welcomed Pakistan’s decision to remove the requirement of separate permit system to allow pilgrims to travel through the historic Kartarpur corridor.
At the same time, he has also requested the waiver of passport to facilitate devotees from the rural areas of the State.
Chief Minister hoped that the Government of India would press Pakistan to accept other key demands being raised by him over the past several months including further increase in the daily limit of pilgrims allowed passage by Islamabad to enable ‘khulle darshan’ to mark the historic occasion of the 550th birth anniversary celebration of Guru Nanak Dev.
“This is vital to ensure smooth flow of pilgrims on important days during the celebration period in November,” he said.
Pakistan has now agreed to 5,000 devotees a day as against its original proposal of 500 but Capt said that the number needed to be further raised, at least on special occasions, in view of the huge demand for permissions expected to come from the Sikhs and other devotees who were likely to descend from around the world.
The CM, however, hailed Pakistan’s decision to allow OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) and PIO (Persons of Indian Origin) card holders, as urged by him, in an earlier to the Government of India on the issue. It may be recalled that in their MoU, Pakistan had suggested allowing only Indian yatris.
He also thanked the Indian Government for persuading Islamabad to accede to his request for passage of pilgrims on all seven days of the week.
Capt said the historic corridor would not serve its full potential unless Pakistan agreed to become even more flexible with regard to the various issues raised by him to enable all the pilgrims visit the Sri Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara.