Chandigarh, 14 December: The Railway Ministry has put brakes on the Chief Minister’s Pilgrimage Scheme of the Punjab Government.
According to the authorities, Railways has refused to provide trains to Punjab for this scheme. Due to this, for a few days now this scheme will run by buses only in Punjab. Elderly people going on religious pilgrimage will not be able to go out of Punjab.
The Punjab government had launched the ‘Chief Minister Teerth Yatra’ scheme on the occasion of Guru Parv on November 27. On this, a petition has been filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court on behalf of Advocate HC Arora opposing the plan. In the last hearing, the High Court has asked the Punjab Government to present its side.
Here, Railways has verbally informed the Punjab Government about the absence of trains till February. Railways argue that they are short of generators, due to which AC trains will not be available. At present, the Punjab government is also waiting for the written order from the Railways.
On the other hand, Punjab Government has given advance of more than Rs 1 crore to Railways for darshan of various Gurudhams. Till now, only one train was started by the Punjab government, in which around one thousand devotees traveled from Amritsar to Nanded Sahib.
In the weekly tour, all the arrangements for the passengers from food to accommodation and darshan were made by the Punjab Government.
