Chandigarh, Nov 18 (PTI) Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Monday said the election to the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (HSGMC) will be conducted soon.

Saini gave the assurance in the Haryana assembly after opposition Congress members, while taking part in a discussion on a Bill, said the polls to the body should be held without delay.

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"Elections will be held soon, I want to assure you," the chief minister added.

Recently, Sikh community leaders had also met with Saini to demand early elections to the body.

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The 18-month period of an ad-hoc committee of the body expired on May 31 and a new ad-hoc committee of the HSGMC was nominated by the government on August 14.

Meanwhile, Saini informed the assembly that currently, the process of voter registration is underway in preparation for these elections.

He was speaking in the House during the discussion on the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management (Amendment) Bill, 2024, which was passed by the Assembly.

Apart from this, six more bills were passed in the House on Monday evening.

The Haryana Sikh Gurdwaras (Management) Amendment Bill, 2024, was passed to amend the Haryana Sikh Gurdwaras (Management) Act, 2014.

During the discussion on the Bill, Saini said that under the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Act, there is a provision for the formation of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Judicial Commission.

Earlier, there was a provision in the commission that the chairman of the commission would be a district Judge. If a district judge is not appointed as the chairman, then one of its three members will be the chairman as per seniority.

"Today, in this bill, we have made a provision that the chairman of the commission can be a high court judge or a district judge and the upper age limit of 65 years has also been removed," the chief minister said.

Saini clarified that the government has not imposed any restrictions on the elections for the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee. Instead, a separate committee has been formed to oversee the election process, he said.

He said when members of the Sikh community had recently met him, he assured them that voter registration was in progress. This process is still going on and elections will be conducted soon, he assured.

Earlier, during the discussion on the Bill, Congress member Ashok Arora said, "By not holding elections to the body, injustice is being done to the Sikh community."

Congress leaders Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Arora and Jarnail Singh said the affairs of the HSGMC should be run by an elected body and not a nominated committee.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)