SGPC fine with screening of Sikh movie on govt vans

Recently, Abohar Block Development and Panchayat Officer (BDPO) Baljit Kaur Dhillon had objected to putting up pictures of Akali leaders along with the Gurus of ‘Chaar Sahibzaade’. Within 12 hours of her public objection on Facebook to the move, she was transferred to Chandigarh for unknown reasons.

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The Punjab government, however, claims that the movie is not being showcased to advertise its work alone. “Some advertisements are played before the start of the movie and then during an interval and at the end. That’s all. Nobody will watch the movie just for the advertisements,” said an officer in the public relations wing of the Punjab government. The vans, with the tagline ‘Punjab da Parkash’, will travel to all constituencies to highlight the government schemes.

Sukhdev Singh, secretary in the SGPC, did not go into details of the venture. He, however, said that the government did not pay any money for playing the movie in publicity vans.

“It’s for free. Even you can come and take DVD for free,” said Sukhdev Singh.

When asked if someone could use the movie for publicity of a third party, Sukhdev Singh said that he was not authorised to answer the question.
“We have taken permission from the SGPC to run the movie. We have not made any payment for that,” said Kanwaljit Singh, director, Public Relation Department.