AMRITSAR: The third anniversary of Kartarpur Corridor was celebrated at Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, Kartarpur Sahib, Pakistan on November 9. On the occasion the officials of Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) along with the visiting Indian devotees held a cake cutting ceremony.
Sources informed that Indian devotees asked the ETPB officials to take up the issue of doing away a US $20 service levied on every devotee visiting Kartarpur Sahib with the concerned department.
While talking to TOI, deputy administrator ETPB, Rana Tariq informed that last month Pakistan’s federal minister Ahsan Iqbal had visited Kartarpur Sahib and assured to take up the issue of US $20 service fee.
The imposition of US $20 service fee per person by Pakistani government has been a contentious issue and India had consistently been demanding to do away with the service fee. Even the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee had also demanded scrapping of the US $20 fee for visiting Kartarpur Sahib through Kartarpur Corridor. Founder of India, Pakistan, Bangaldesh unification movement Madan Lal Narula had been sitting on dharna for past over 220 days at Dera Baba Nanak demanding to scrap of the US $20 service fee.
Tariq said as per agreement they were expecting 5,000 devotees from India to visit every day but presently the number of arrival of devotees was far too less. He said the Indian government should do away the clause of possessing a passport and should instead allow devotees to visit Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib who had the Aadhar card.
Notably, It was November 9, 2019 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the then Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan had inaugurated the Kartarpur Corridor on their respective sides. Modi had also flagged off the first batch of piligrims to travel to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib via newly constructed Kartarpur Corridor.
Kartarpur Corridor allows followers of Baba Nanak from India to undergo a day long pilgrimage to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, Kartarpur Sahib situated in Narowal district of Pakistan Punjab from Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district of Indian Punjab, covering a distance of nearly 4.5 kilometre.
The bilateral agreement signed signed between India and Pakistan on October 24, 2019 provides for visa-free travel of Indian citizens as well as Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cardholders, from India to Gurudwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur in Pakistan on a daily basis, throughout the year.
Representations have been made to the government for allowing visit to Gurudwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur through the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor without passport since a large number of people doesn't have passports.
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