Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Sunday condemned the Congress-led Punjab Government for charging Rs 20 as application filing fees from pilgrims to facilitate their ‘darshan’ of Kartarpur Sahib on the 550th Parkash Purb of Guru Nanak Dev.
“Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh should not adopt double standards by protesting the charging of 20 dollars by Pakistan and simultaneously make pilgrims pay Rs 20 for getting their forms filled for the pilgrimage,” said senior SAD leader Prem Singh Chandumajra.
He said that on one hand, the Chief Minister was urging Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to waive off 20 dollars service fee being imposed on pilgrims; but at the same time, his own Government was charging pilgrims Rs 20 per person for filing their application forms. “It is better you first practice what you preach,” he told the Chief Minister.
Chandumajra said that Rs 20 charges showed the ‘aastha’ with which the Congress Government was celebrating the 550th Parkash Purb of the founder of Sikhism.
“Helping the citizens is the constitutional duty of every State Government, but the Congress Government does not want to do this pious job for free even on the eve of Parkash Purb celebrations,” he said while referring to the Government’s argument for charging Rs 20 only from those who could not fill the online form and preferred to take Government help in filling it.
Asking the Congress Government not to levy the service fee on the same pattern as Pakistan, the
Akali leader said that the fee should be revoked immediately.