Khalsa memorial plan yet to be finalised

CHANDIGARH, April 20: Several Sikh scholars today called upon the Punjab Government to gear up the implementation of the projects relating to the 300th anniversary celebrations of the birth of the Khalsa in 1999.

At a meeting here, these scholars said even the architectural plans of the Khalsa Heritage Memorial, to come up at Anandpur Sahib, had not been finalised despite the fact that world-famous Israeli architect Moshe Sufdie had been assigned the task. No effort had so far been made to take the representatives of the Sikh organisations into confidence as regards its architectural plans.

Talking to media persons, Dr Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia, chairman, Guru Gobind Singh Foundation, said the meeting was critical of the bureaucratic inertia gripping the celebrations programme as the state-level celebrations committee set up about a year ago, had met only once. The Anandpur Sahib Foundation, notified by the state last year, had not met even once.

It was decided to take a delegation to PM Atal Behari Vajpayee to request him to expeditiously constitute the national committee for celebrating the historic occasion.