Amritsar, Punjab (March 28, 2014): The Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee (SGPC) passed it’s annual budget of Rs 905 crore for the 2014-15 fiscal year, which is Rs 99 crore more than it’s last year’s budget.

This is the third successive year when the budget could not be presented and approved in the SGPC general house as the fate of the new House continues to hang in balance over the Sehajdhari row.

Therefore, like the last two years, the budget was passed by the SGPC executive committee. The budget was presented by general secretary Sukhdev Singh Bhaur and it was approved by the committee members led by SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar. In the budget, an amount of Rs 560.51 crore was allocated for managing the gurdwara affairs of the shrines falling under Section 85, which is up by Rs 49 lakh as compared to last year.

The SGPC-run educational institutions have got Rs 154 crore in the budget, which is also up by Rs 20 crore. An amount of Rs 54 crore has been allocated to General Board Fund, which is Rs 5.6 crore more than last year; Rs 37.80 crore to the Trust Fund, which too is Rs 6.56 crore more than last year.

The Education Fund has been raised to Rs 29.25 crore as compared to Rs 23.9 crore last year. Dharam Parchar Committee has got Rs 63 crore, up by Rs 11 crore from last year, for propagation of Sikhism. For printing presses, the SGPC has allocated Rs 6.4 crore, which is also up by Rs 31 lakh as compared to the last year.

According to The Tribune (TT): Avtar Singh Makkar said this year’s annual budget has gone up by 12.2 per cent as compared to the previous year. He said the budget has been passed by the executive committee as per the SC orders. He said the SGPC is constructing 13 more schools and colleges, the construction work of which is already on. He said over 1 lakh students are acquiring education in the SGPC-run institutions. He said they have also made the provision for free education to Amritdhari Sikh students, adding that they’ve waived off fee of 2,000 students under the norm. He said they’ve also set up a cancer relief fund, besides another to extend aid to bright students from poor economic background.

Allocation of Budget:

* Rs 560.51 crore — Maintenance, development of 86 Gurdwaras across country

* Rs 154 crore Upkeep, development of SGPC-run schools and colleges

* Rs 63 crore Propagation of Sikhism

* Rs 54 crore General Board Fund

* Rs 37.80 crore Trust Fund

* Rs 29.25 crore Education Fund

* Rs 6.4 cr Printing Press