Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Saturday ordered the state finance department to immediately release the requisite funds for completing the infrastructural projects to mark the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Sri Guru Nanak Dev ji.Presiding over a meeting to review the arrangements for the celebrations, the Chief Minister also directed the concerned departments to expeditiously complete the development works.Reiterating his government’s commitment to ensuring that the celebrations are a mega success, the Chief Minister said work on upgradation and strengthening of the roads in the holy city would be completed soon. He also assured of a complete facelift of Sultanpur Lodi in the coming days.The Chief Minister said elaborate arrangements would be made for facilitating the pilgrims arriving in the holy city during the celebrations.Captain Amarinder Singh also asked the officers to prepare a detailed action plan for cleaning of the Holy Kali Bein before the commencement of the celebrations. The Bein, he said, had a major significance in Sikh history and was highly revered by the people, and the state government had hence decided to ensure that it is cleaned up at the earliest.
Captain Amarinder Singh said that the state government had made a budgetary provision of Rs 100 crore for the arrangements for the celebrations, which would be centered around the theme of “Nanak Naam Chardikala, Tere Bhane Sarbat Da Bhala”. The government, he pointed out, had also decided to rename the road/roads linking various places across the state, which had been blessed with the visits of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji, as `Guru Nanak Marg'. The meeting was attended, among others, by Deputy Commissioner Mohammed Tayyab, Inspector General of Police Naunihal Singh and Senior Superintendent of Police Sandeep Sharma.Others present at the meeting included Gurdaspur MLA and PPCC president Sunil Jakhar, MLA Navtej Singh Cheema, Chairman of Punjab Mandi Board Laal Singh, former Punjab Minister Joginder Singh Mann, President of District Congress Committee Jalandhar Captain Harminder Singh, and Congress leader Nimisha Mehta.