Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Thursday told Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh not to take an anti-Sikh stance and immediately take on the responsibility of paying the $20 service fee being charged by Pakistan for pilgrims accessing the Kartarpur Corridor by reviving the Mukh Mantri Tirath Yatra scheme initiated by his predecessor Parkash Singh Badal during the previous SAD-BJP Government.

Taking strong note of the Chief Minister trying to pass on the buck for his failure to come to the aid of the Sikh pilgrims to the SGPC, SAD leader and former minister Daljit Singh Cheema said: “You cannot escape your responsibility by creating these smoke screens...You should instead explain why the Mukh Mantri Tirath Yatra scheme is not being revived to help pilgrims visit Sri Kartarpur Sahib?”

Asking the Chief Minister why he could not take on the responsibility of the $20 service fee on the pattern of that done by the Delhi Government, the SAD leader said: “You spent crores on self publicity by pasting your posters and hoardings across Punjab and even outside the State. You disobeyed the directive of Sri Akal Takht Sahib to hold joint celebrations of the parkash purb by holding a separate show instead of joining the Sikh sangat to mark the occasion jointly at the SGPC stage on November 12.”

“In this process, hundreds of crores were wasted. If you had let the SGPC fulfil its responsibility by observing the 550th parkash purb as per ‘maryada’ and joined the progamme, you would saved a few hundred crores which could have been used to fulfil the Sikh sangat ‘ardas’ of ‘khule darshan deedar’ of Gurdwara Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur,” he said.

Stating that it was not too late to make amends, Cheema said that the Chief Minister should apologise to the Sikh sangat and seek forgiveness from Sri Akal Takht Sahib for politicising a religious occasion for self glory and to draw attention away from the complete failure of the Congress Government on all fronts.

“Simultaneously, the Government should revive the Tirath Yatra scheme and take on the responsibility of the 20 dollar fee. Only Rs 300 crore was needed for this purpose and the government only needed to curb wasteful expenditure to make it possible,” he added.

SAD leader also pointed that earlier under SAD-BJP tenure, Parkash Singh Badal facilitated travel of pilgrims by bus to Sri Darbar Sahib besides travel by special trains to Nanded Sahib, Patna Sahib, Varanasi and Ajmer under the Mukh Mantri Tirath Yatra scheme.