Row over ‘missing content’ from new website of SGPC

AMRITSAR : A controversy has erupted over the new website of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) with voices being raised over removal of important content from the portal.

The SGPC unveiled its new website www.sgpcamritsar.org in January this year, which earlier was was www.sgpc.net.

Urging the Akal Takht to take action against the SGPC, Sikh Federation activist Prof Sarchand Singh said the gurdwara body has deliberately removed old and new kirtan (devotional singing), hukamnama sahib (hymn from the Guru Granth Sahib which is an order to Sikhs) pages from the new website.

He said, “The panth (community) has yet not got the plundered treasure of the Sikh Reference Library and the SGPC president Jagir Kaur has removed important content related to Sikh customs and history from the website under a deep-rooted conspiracy. Instead of using Punjabi, the new website is decorated with the English language. Instead of uploading the pictures of Sikh martyrs, the SGPC has uploaded pictures of celebrities and political leaders.”

Terming the allegations as “baseless”, SGPC’S additional secretary Sukhminder Singh said work to transfer data from the old portal to the new is still underway. He said the domain name of the old website gave an impression of a network whereas the SGPC is a large organisation. Thus, the domain name was changed to ‘sgpcamritsar.org’. “The new portal will contain all data that was available on the old website,” he said.