Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Amarinder Singh on Sunday urged the Centre for the expeditious resolution of the issue of the opening up of the Kartarpur corridor for the preparedness of 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev.

Speaking to reporters after inaugurating a private marriage palace at Fatehgarh Sahib, the CM said that being a bilateral issue, this needed the active engagement of both India and Pakistan for its resolution.

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He had personally met the Prime Minister and foreign minister with the request to take up the issue with Pakistan, Amarinder pointed out, adding that he had even raised the issue during his visit to the neighbouring country during his previous stint as CM. The issue was of enormous religious significance for the Sikh sangat, he added.

Amarinder recalled that his grandfather Maharaja Bhupinder Singh had donated Rs 1.35 lakh to save the historic gurudwara of Sri Kartarpur Sahib after it was ravaged by Ravi waters in 1920s.

The hope of the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor for facilitating visa-free access of Kartarpur Sahib for Sikhs has been dashed for now after India called off the meeting between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Pakistani counterpart Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly at New York following the recent killings of Indian soldiers at Indo-Pak border.