The SGPC had recently
allotted tender for desi ghee to be used at over 85 gurdwaras in Punjab and
Haryana to this company as it had quoted the lowest price.
After
allotment of Rs 60-crore tender for desi ghee to a Pune-based company, Sanoi
Dairy, by the SGPC for preparing karah parshad and langar at various gurdwaras
across the Punjab and Haryana, the state government has urged the Sikh body to
reconsider its decision in the interest of state’s 3.5 lakh milk producers, 99
per cent of whom are Sikhs.
In a letter to SGPC chief
Gobind Singh Longowal, Punjab Cooperation Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa
has said that the state’s farmers donate tons of food grains to SGPC for
distribution as langar and the religious body’s allotment of tender to a
company outside Punjab would create livelihood problems for these farmers.
Quoting former SGPC chief
Gurcharan Singh Tohra, Randhawa wrote that “he (Tohra) would often say that
SGPC is not a business establishment. He used to say that every decision of
SGPC should be made after taking into consideration the welfare of the Sikh
Community. He used to believe that he would not rent out a SGPC shop outside
Golden Temple to an atheist for 10 times the normal rent and would rather give
it to a poor Sikh selling ‘kakkars’ (symbols of Sikhism).”
In the
letter, Randhawa has also raised questions over quality of the Desi Ghee that
the company would be supplying to SGPC at a much cheaper price than quoted by Milked.
He writes, “Milked helps the
farmers by procuring milk from them at certain price so that they do not suffer
losses. At the same time it provides its consumers premium products by not
comprising on quality. This does not leave room for the Milked to quote a price
which is lesser than quoted earlier. If we reduce the price, the farmers will
have to bear the brunt.”
Dr,Gurdeep Kaur,Associate Professor,University of Delhi
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