Delhi leader Avtar Singh Hit is President of Takht Patna Sahib Committee
Months after the general elections were held for the Takht Harmandir Patna Sahib Committee under the Takht Harmandir Sahib Gurdwara Management Act, 1956, DSGMC nominee and former legislator from Delhi, Avtar Singh Hit was unanimously elected as the President of the Takht Harmandir Patna Sahib Board.
Out of the 15 member committee, one member has still to be nominated.
After a lot of behind-the-scenes wrangling, eminent medical professional Dr Gurmeet Singh from Lucknow was elected as the Sr VP, Inderjit Singh of Tatanagar as the Vice President and local Sikh leaders from Patna Mohinder Pal Singh Dhillon and Mohinder Singh as general secretary and secretary respectively.
To ensure the hold of the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal Badal leadership at Patna, Punjab Akali leader Balwinder Singh Bhundar and Delhi legislator Manjinder Singh Sirsa were camping in Patna as observers for the selection. Ranchi leader Gurvinder Singh Sethi was also a participant in the deliberations leading to the selection of the Executive Committee members. SGPC President Gobind Singh Longowal too was present in his capacity as nominee of SGPC.
The newly elected members were honoured at the Takht Sahib by Jathedar Giani Iqbal Singh. The office bearers announced that they would concentrate on Dharam Parchar in the region of Bihar and Jharkhand. They also said that they would always strive to maintain a good balance of representation between Bihar, Jharkhand and Bihar.
Senior leaders of the Sikhs from Bihar, Jharkhand and Bengal were present on the occasion. Harpal Singh Johal of Bihar Akali Dal, Union leader and leader of Sikh Sewa Society Sewa Singh, Coordinators of the Jharkhand Sikh Pratinidhi Board Harminder Singh, Surjit Singh Khushipur, Sukhvinder Singh Raju, Gurcharan Singh Billa, Rangreta Mahasabha leaders Manjit Singh Gill and Kuldip Singh, Katihar Bihar leader Gurvinder Singh, Sasaram representative Sarvjit Singh Khalsa, poet Jasvir Singh Mattewal, Central Sikh Naujawan Sabha general secretary Damanpreet Singh were all honoured at the Takht.