TIRATH YATRA SCHEME: Pilgrims’ selection criteria questioned

TIRATH YATRA SCHEME

Pilgrims’ selection criteria questioned

Archit Watts
Tribune News Service

Muktsar, January 22

The state government’s “Mukh Mantri Tirath Yatra Scheme” for providing free-of-cost pilgrimage to sacred cities of Sri Nanded Sahib, Varanasi, Katra (Mata Vaishno Devi), Chintpurni, Salasar and Ajmer Sharif has left many people harried than those heading for the pilgrimage.

A train carrying 1,000 people left for Sri Nanded Sahib from the Muktsar railway station this morning. However, a number of people challenged the criterion of selection of pilgrims. They even alleged that most of the people headed for the pilgrimage were Akalis.

“The lists of pilgrims have been prepared by SAD leaders, who have sent their own people. The state government should have acted in a fair manner and make public announcement in villages and towns to get applications from genuine people who otherwise can’t go on their own,” said an elderly man.

Jagjit Singh ‘Honey Fattanwala’, a Congress leader from Muktsar, said, “This is a good step taken by the state government, but the selection criterion of pilgrims is wrong. It should have been kept away from politics.”

On being asked the exact number of people who had applied for the pilgrimage, Additional Deputy Commissioner Kuljit Pal Singh Mahi and District Transport Officer-cum-Nodal Officer for the special train Hardeep Singh failed to give any satisfactory reply.

Courtesy: The Tribune