CHANDIGARH, October 28 (Aalimi Nation) – The Punjab Vidhan Sabha on Tuesday passed a resolution urging the Centre to reopen the Sri Kartarpur Sahib Corridor, which gives Sikh pilgrims access to Gurdwara Sri Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan. The resolution was adopted on the last day of the Assembly session.
Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains moved the resolution, and Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann spoke in support of it in the House. No vote count was given in the accounts available, and no opposition reaction had been reported at the time of writing.
The resolution urges the Union government to take immediate steps to reopen the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor and to keep it operational. It asks the Centre to simplify the procedures for visiting the shrine, with particular attention to elderly and infirm pilgrims, and to work with the Government of Pakistan to ensure safe and uninterrupted movement of the Sikh sangat to the gurdwara.
The text describes the corridor as a matter of religious freedom and human kinship and not merely a diplomatic route between India and Pakistan. It invokes Guru Nanak Dev's message of "Sarbat da Bhala", or the welfare of all, and says the restrictions and interruptions have hurt Sikh sentiment around the world and denied devotees darshan.
Mann said religious devotion should not be affected by political considerations and that matters of faith must remain above politics. "The spiritual aspirations of the people must be respected," he said, urging the Centre to reopen the corridor.
Bains described Sri Kartarpur Sahib as the cradle of the principles of "Kirat Karo, Naam Japo te Vand Chhako", the Sikh teachings of honest work, remembrance of God and sharing with others. He called the corridor a bridge that connects the Sikh sangat with the places where the Guru walked.
The Kartarpur Sahib Corridor links Dera Baba Nanak in Punjab's Gurdaspur district with the gurdwara across the border in Pakistan, where Guru Nanak Dev is revered as having spent the last years of his life. The corridor remains closed. The accounts of the resolution do not say when or why access was suspended.
Mann has raised the demand before. In September 2025, he called for the corridor to be reopened and for Sikh jathas, or pilgrim groups, to be allowed to visit Kartarpur Sahib and Nankana Sahib in Pakistan, and said he would write to the Centre on the issue. He cited the state of India-Pakistan relations at that time and argued that pilgrim access should not be treated like other bilateral ties. The Centre did not respond to those remarks in the reports available.
An Assembly resolution is a request and does not bind the Union government, which handles matters involving border crossings and relations with Pakistan. No response from the Centre or the Ministry of External Affairs had been reported on Wednesday morning.
Whether the Centre acts on the resolution, and under what conditions pilgrims could be allowed to travel, remains to be seen. Any decision to resume movement through the corridor would be announced by the Union government.
