National Commission for Minorities asks Uttarakhand to clear land for gurdwara

Inordinate delay in the matter was hurting the religious sentiments of the Sikh community, NCM Chairperson wrote to Uttarakhand CM

The National Commission for Minorities (NCM) on Thursday asked the Uttarakhand Government to allot land for the reconstruction of Gurdwara Gyan Godri Sahib, a Sikh pilgrimage site that was situated at Har ki Pauri in Haridwar district. Guru Nanak Dev, the first Sikh guru, is believed to have stayed at the holy site during his first missionary journey.

Originally built in 1935, it was demolished in 1966 following a Kumbh Mela stampede, and again in 1978. According to information shared by the NCM, the Sikh community’s request to allot appropriate land for the gurdwara’s construction has been pending with the Uttarakhand Government for a long time.

Sources said the then Government of Uttar Pradesh (Haridwar was a part of U.P. at the time) took over the gurdwara’s land for beautification but never returned it to the Sikh community. Later, when Uttarakhand was carved out of U.P., the land allotted to the Sikhs did not materialise due to a dispute between the governments of the two neighbouring States.

To resolve the long-pending issue, the NCM’s Chairperson, Iqbal Singh Lalpura, wrote a letter in 2021 to Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Pushkar Singh Dhami, requesting him to direct the concerned officers to take immediate action in the matter, and inform the Commission as such an inordinate delay in the matter was hurting the religious sentiments of the Sikh community.

“Mr. Lalpura also held a meeting with all concerned in December 2021 at Haridwar and Dehradun over the issue. However, after more than one year, the District Magistrate, Haridwar has informed that the land identified for the gurdwara falls under the Uttar Pradesh Irrigation Department,” an official from the NCM said.

“As the original gurudwara was situated in Uttarakhand, the Government of Uttarakhand may provide the land within the territory of Uttarakhand in Haridwar and not from the property of Uttar Pradesh,” Mr. Lalpura said on Thursday.