Revise voter list before holding Haryana Sikh gurdwara panel polls: SGPC chief

Chandigarh, Feb 8 (SocialNews.XYZ) Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Harjinder Singh Dhami on Thursday appealed to the Gurdwara Elections Commissioner to revise the voter list before initiating the election process to the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (HSGMC).

He cited several irregularities, including addition of non-Sikhs in the list and not putting up pictures of voters in the voting list. Dhami told the media that "the election schedule to the HSGMC has been announced in haste without holding any meeting with political parties".

He said no provision had been kept to register political parties for allocation of symbols for the election and that this was being seen as an attempt to deny registration to the representative body of the Sikhs -- the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).

"This should be corrected," he added.

The SGPC President said perusal of the few voting lists had revealed a large number of non-Sikh names who were not eligible to vote for the Gurdwara elections.

He said besides, pictures of the voters had not been included in the voter list which would make it difficult to identify genuine voters and could result in malpractices.

Dhami also pointed out that only 390 booths had been earmarked in the entire Haryana for casting of votes in the elections.

"This means voters from an average of 20 villages will vote in one designated booth," he said, adding this would inconvenience the voters greatly.

Dhami also said the SGPC had lodged its protest against the Maharashtra Chief Minister for reconstituting the Sri Hazur Sahib Board.

He said the number of nominated members in the board had been increased from two to 12 even as the representation of the SGPC in the board had been reduced from four to two.

Source: IANS