After free trains, govt now offers buses to pilgrim centres

BARNALA: Ahead of the 2017 elections, Punjab government on Friday, in an apparent bid to woo devotees, started buses to pilgrim centres like Amritsar, Salasar Dham in Rajasthan and Chintpurni in Himachal Pradesh as part of the Mukh Mantri Tirath Darshan Yatra scheme.

Around 80 PRTC buses were pressed into service for taking devotees to Golden Temple, Durgiana Temple in Amritsar apart from Salasar and Chintpurni. Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal flagged off five buses for Amritsar from Barnala, while various ministers flagged off PRTC buses from different districts. Sukhbir, accompanied by finance minister Parminder Dhindsa and Punjab state planning board vice-chairman Rajinder Gupta, also presided over half a dozen sangat darshan programmes in several wards of Barnala.

Earlier, trains to Takht Hazur Sahib at Nanded in Maharashtra, Varanasi, Ajmer Sharif and Vaishno Devi in Jammu and Kashmir were introduced.

Sukhbir said, "Eighty buses would be operating every month from the state which would take the devotees free of cost to Sri Harmandir Sahib, Durgiana Temple, Virasat-E-Khalsa, Sri Salasar Balaji Dham and Mata Chintpurni." Sukhbir also kickstarted various projects at a cost of Rs 11.88 crore.