People have right to seek early SGPC polls: Amarinder

Chandigarh, Feb 14 (IANS) Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Thursday said that people had the right to early polls to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the supreme body controlling gurdwaras.

Hours after he was authorized by the Punjab Assembly to take up the issue with the Centre, the Chief Minister termed the delay in the SGPC elections as "wrong and unfair for the people of Punjab".

"It is the democratic right of every Sikh to vote in SGPC elections which cannot be denied by the Union Government," Amarinder said in the Assembly earlier while responding to the issue that was raised by legislator H.S. Phoolka.

"I will meet the Union Home Minister soon. Since the Gurdwara Act was a national legislation, it was the bounden duty of the Central Government to hold timely elections to the SGPC," he said.

Despite opposition from the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the Punjab Assembly on Thursday passed a resolution seeking to expedite elections to the cash-rich SGPC.

The Assembly has asked the Chief Minister to meet Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in this regard.

The SGPC, the highest religious body of the Sikh community, controls gurdwaras in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh and has an annual budget of over Rs 1,200 crore.

The demand for elections to the SGPC was raised by Phoolka, who pointed out that its term had ended in 2016.

However, the Akali Dal legislators objected to the demand, saying that Phoolka had resigned from the Assembly two months ago.

It was clarified that Phoolka was still a member of the House as his resignation had not been accepted by Assembly Speaker Rana K.P. Singh.

With most SGPC members affiliated to the SAD, the party has controlled the Sikh body over the past few decades.

Even the SGPC president is appointed with the blessings of the Akali Dal top leadership - former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Singh Badal (SAD President).