Pakistan should remove $20 fee to visit Kartarpur Gurdwara: RP Singh

BJP National Secretary Sardar RP Singh on Thursday appealed to Pakistan to withdraw the USD20 service fee imposed on pilgrims visiting Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara. He said that the service fee and complicated booking process are the reasons for the low turnout at Kartarpur.

New Delhi: With less than 1,000 taking the Kartarpur corridor to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in the first three days of the opening of the route, people feel lack of awareness about the online registration process, requirement of passport and a service fee being charged by Pakistan are to be blamed for the low turnout.

In the first three days after a grand opening by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 9, just 897 devotees visited Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan through the Kartarpur corridor.

Speaking to ETV Bharat, BJP National Secretary Sardar RP Singh on Thursday appealed to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to withdraw the USD20 service fee imposed by his government on pilgrims visiting Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara.

"The imposition of the fee is obstructing the realisation of the dream of pilgrims, many of whom are poor and cannot afford such a fee, and this is the reason pilgrims visiting Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara are less in numbers," said Singh.

He further said that the process should be simplified because most of the people in the remote areas who wish to visit Kartarpur Sahib do not have passports and due to this they are unable to visit.

As per the agreement between the two countries, 5,000 pilgrims could cross over to the neighbouring nation per day for paying obeisance at the historic gurdwara.

It is to be noted that the corridor, opened after over 70 years of Partition, connects the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India's Punjab with Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur, the final resting place of Guru Nanak in Narowal district of Pakistan's Punjab province.