DW BUREAU / Chandigarh The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today asked the Punjab government to transfer the entire Sri Hazur Sahib 'sangat' which was quarantined in unhygienic government facilities to SGPC sarai, saying Sikh organisations and the SAD would look after them. Condemning the cheap politics being played out by Congress ministers in Punjab and outside, former minister Bikram Singh Majithia told newsmen Sikhs would not let 10 Janpath defame the pilgrims through its puppets like Digvijay Singh or local Congress leaders who wanted to turn the pilgrims into scape goats to hide their own failures. "We will also not allow anyone to demean Takth Sri Hazur Sahib or the sangat which has returned after paying its obeisance at the land from which Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji gave Gurdaddi to Sri Guru Granth Sahib Maharaj. Majithia said the SGPC President has stated on record about the sarai which the institution had offered to host the pilgrims. "They should be transferred there immediately as the government facilities where the pilgrims have been put up are most unhygienic and lack even basic facilities". He also condemned minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa for claiming that pilgrims were not accommodated at the Dera Baba Nanak gurdwara and said Randhawa was a liar whose father had even defended the demolition of Sri Akal Takth by Indira Gandhi. Asking chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh to take over the health portfolio after sacking Balbir Singh Sidhu, the SAD leader said Sidhu had started the process of defamation of the pilgrims by stating that they had spoilt all the good work done by the Punjab government in controlling COVID-19. Stating that the "good work" of the Health department had already been exposed by health workers who had failed to get PPE kits and lack of simple facilities like ambulances and ventilators, Mr Majithia said Balbir Sidhu had proven to be utterly incompetent and should quit his post immediately. Majithia said it was a fact that the Punjabi government did not follow ICMR guidelines while repatriating the Sri Hazur Sahib pilgrims. He said air conditioned buses were used against established norms. "Social distancing was not followed. The buses came through red zones and it was because of this mishandling that pilgrims, who were in good health in Nanded for more than one month, tested positive for COVID-19 on return to Punjab". He said this had also been borne out by the statement of Congress minister from Maharashtra Ashok Chavan who had blamed the Punjab government for the plight of the pilgrims. (editor@dailyworld.in)