With the Uttar Pradesh Government still dithering to hand over the land, the Sikh community people who have been staging stir at a place near Prem Nagar ashram bridge for the past few months, demanding land to construct the Gyan Godri Gurdwara near banks of Ganga, have started works of the construction at the site.
A toilet having already been built, the committee members are now planning to construct boundary walls. Holy discourses and chanting of hymns have been continuing for the past few months within the fenced enclosure erected by the Sikh devotees.
In the past, the District Administration had shown many plots of lands to the devotees, but the community members remain adamant that the Gurdwara must come up on the banks of Ganga. They had chosen the land near the Premnagar ashram. However, the land falling within Uttar Pradesh, the transfer procedures for the land have been pending since long.
Speaking to The Pioneer, president of Gyan Godri Gurudwara Management Committee Harjeet Singh Dua said, “We would start building the boundary wall around the site soon.” However, SDO of irrigation department, UP Sushil Yadav denied any such kind of construction having been done at the site. “The land comes under the jurisdiction of the UP irrigation department and construction of any kind is prohibited at the site. If some building activity is undertaken we would stop it with the help of police,” he said.
SSP Haridwar Krishna Kumar V K said, “We have not yet received any information or complaint of any such kind of construction being done at the site.”
Notably, the first Sikh Guru Nanak Dev had visited Har Ki Pauri in 1504-05 following which a Gurudwara came up at the holy place. However, in 1978 the Gurudwara was demolished for beautification of the area. In 1984, it was handed over to Scouts and Guides and the Sikh community people have been protesting while demanding it to be handed back to them for over the past 32 years. The Grurdwara is special for the devotees as Guru Nanak Dev had thrown a challenge to the tenets of Brahmanical Hinduism, while espousing the cause of an egalitarian religion where all would be deemed as equals being the descendants of the same Divine. Ends
