Amritsar, November 1 As many as 23 devotees have applied at the seva kendra in the district to get approval for pilgrimage to the historical Kartarpur gurdwara in Pakistan to pay obeisance on the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev through a special corridor. The government has offered free-of-cost service to apply online from any of its seva kendras. There are 41 seva kendras in the border district. Bhagwant Singh, a resident of Ibrahimpura village, Ajnala, said, after unsuccessful attempts through internet at home he decided to apply online. He said he had never been to Pakistan but wish to pay his regards at historic Sikh shrine on the auspicious occasion. Another successful applicant, Yogesh Kamra, said he managed to get the online approval for pilgrimage at the historical gurdwara after undergoing procedural wrangling. He successfully applied for his mother Neelam Kamra, wife Preeti Kamra, daughter Pearl and son Aryan. A large number of people have started applying online for pilgrimage after the Ministry of Home Affairs opened an online portal ‘Pilgrimage to Sri Kartarpur Sahib’ for public. An applicant has to apply online on portal of Bureau of Immigration. There are four pages to be filled. After filling basic details, including name, age, address, date of birth, one has to clearly mention the date on which one wants to visit. Red colour shows slot is filled and green says there is availability of space on that date. One has to mention the nearest police station. Complication starts while uploading photo of a particular size. The portal then again asks for current and permanent addresses. Passport’s front and last pages are to be scanned and upload separately but only in PDF format. Subsequently, after submission of form an acknowledgement copy was received on email account of the applicant. Following it a unique ID is generated. Then the portal responds that the applicant will be informed about his pilgrimage approval couple of days before the date filled. Yogesh stated that later he received an email with a registration ID along with a message that it was a provisional registration and did not confer right to travel. “Your final status will be intimated four days prior to the date of travel,” he added. Applicants are of the view that one needs to be tech-savvy and conversant with process to register online for the pilgrimage.

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