Hooda rules out sending HSGPC bill to president

Chandigarh July 11 (IANS) Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda Friday said there is no need to send the Haryana Sikh Gurdwaras Management Bill, 2014 to the president for his assent.

"The state is competent to enact it. There is no need to send it to the president for assent," Hooda told reporters after the controversial bill was passed by the Haryana assembly within three hours of being introduced on the first day of the monsoon session.

Criticizing the opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for playing with the sentiments of Sikhs in Haryana, he accused them of adopting dual standards on formation of a separate Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee for Haryana.

He claimed that the BJP had supported a bill for a separate SGPC in 2007 but was opposing it now.

Hooda said that the bill had been discussed in detail in the assembly and members of all parties were given opportunity to speak on it, and there was no need to send the bill to president for his assent as the state is empowered to enact its own act.

He said that a separate Haryana Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (HSGPC) would become functional in Haryana soon after the bill is approved by the governor.

A Sikh Management Committee (adhoc) comprising 41 members would be constituted soon to look after the management of gurdwaras in Haryana till the next election of the HSGPC is held, said Hooda, adding the Congress had promised a separate gurdwara committee for Haryana in its election manifestos in 2005 and 2009 and the promise had now been fulfilled.