New Delhi, Oct 20:
The online registration of devotees visiting Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur could not be started on Sunday as India and Pakistan have not yet agreed upon on a number of issues, including Islamabad’s insistence of charging USD 20 from each pilgrim, officials said. India and Pakistan were supposed to sign a pact on Saturday on a few unresolved issues of the pilgrimage,
Online registration
but that did not happen yet. Since some issues are yet to be resolved, the online registration for the Kartarpur pilgrimage could not be started on Sunday,” an official privy to the development said. Key unresolved issues include Pakistan’s insistence of charging USD 20 from each pilgrim and the timing of the pilgrimage every day (first entry and last exit time). On October 16, Chairman of the Land Ports Authority of India and Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs Govind Mohan had said the online registration for pilgrims visiting Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur is expected to commence on October 20, provided a pact is signed on remaining issues. India had asked Pakistan to reconsider the decision on charging USD 20 per pilgrim, allow 10,000 pilgrims on special occasions and an Indian protocol officer to accompany the delegation that visits Kartarpur everyday.
Pakistan is yet to respond to India’s requests, the official said.
Last month, India and Pakistan agreed on visa-free travel of Indian pilgrims to Gurudwara Darbar Sahib using the Kartarpur corridor. Pilgrims will only have to carry their passports to visit the revered gurdwara in Pakistan.
Persons of Indian origin holding OCI (Overseas Citizenship of India) card too can visit the Gurdwara using the Kartarpur corridor.
It was also decided that 5,000 pilgrims can visit the shrine everyday and that additional pilgrims will be allowed on special occasions, subject to capacity expansion of facilities by the Pakistan side.
India and Pakistan have also decided that the corridor will be operational throughout the year and seven days a week and that pilgrims will have a choice to visit it as individual or in groups.
Both sides agreed to build a bridge over the Budhi Ravi channel near the border crossing point. Pending the construction of the bridge on the Pakistan side, both parties agreed to the crossing point coordinates of the temporary service road.
India has constructed a four-lane highway in Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district in Punjab connecting the ‘zero point’ for onward journey to Pakistan.
A state-of-the-art passenger terminal with facilitation centre to host government officials responsible for ensuring hassle-free travel of pilgrims, food kiosks, parking areas and security points will also come up by November 8 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will formally inaugurate the much-awaited Kartarpur corridor.
A total of 55 immigration counters are being set up at the passenger terminal.
The corridor will connect the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India’s Punjab with the gurdwara at Kartarpur, just about four kilometres from the international border, located at Shakargarh in Narowal district of Pakistan’s Punjab province.
Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism, had spent more than 18 years at the Kartarpur gurdwara, located on the banks of the river Ravi.
India and Pakistan had planned to open the corridor before the year-long celebrations to mark the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev beginning next month.
In November 2018, India and Pakistan had agreed to set up the border crossing linking Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, the final resting place of Guru Nanak Dev, to Dera Baba Nanak.
The foundation stone for the Kartarpur corridor was laid in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu in November last year.Meanwhile Former prime minister Manmohan Singh would not attend the inauguration ceremony of the Kartarpur Corridor in Pakistan but would go there as a common pilgrim, sources close to him said on Sunday after Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi claimed that he has accepted his invitation to attend the scheduled opening.
Qureshi told reporters in his home town Multan on Saturday that Singh has accepted his invitation and would attend the scheduled opening on November 9 as a common man rather than as a special guest, Dawn newspaper reported.
Sources close to Singh in New Delhi said that the former prime minister would not attend the former inauguration ceremony.
In a letter in response to the invite sent to him by Pakistani authorities, Singh has said he would not attend the formal inauguration, but would visit the historic shrine as a common pilgrim, sources said.
Singh would be a part of Sikh Jatha delegation led by Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. They will pay obeisance at the shrine and would return on the same day.
The proposed corridor will connect Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur with Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district of Punjab and facilitate visa-free movement of Indian pilgrims, who will have to just obtain a permit to visit Kartarpur Sahib, which was established in 1522 by Guru Nanak Dev.
Pakistan is building the corridor from the Indian border to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, while the other part from Dera Baba Nanak in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district up to the border will be constructed by India.
Qureshi said Prime Minister Imran Khan would inaugurate Pakistan’s part of the corridor, facilitating pilgrimage of 5,000 Indian Sikhs everyday to their holy place.
