Centre assures Punjab on appointment of new Jallianwala trust members

New Delhi/Chandigarh : The Centre on Friday assured the Punjab government that three new members will be appointed on the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Trust within a week.

The trust will thereafter hold a meeting to consider the state government's proposals and make arrangements for the centenary commemoration of the massacre at the historic spot in April 2019.

The assurance came when Punjab Tourism and Cultural Affairs Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu met Union Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma in New Delhi and pleaded for early appointments of trust members.

Sidhu said there is need to avoid unnecessary delays in getting approvals for the Punjab government's proposals on the centenary.

The trust responsible for maintaining and managing the Jallianwala Bagh -- situated adjacent to Harmandar Sahib in Amritsar -- will be able to work only after the three new members are appointed in place of those whose tenure has ended, the state Minister said.

"We have already submitted a proposal entailing an expenditure of Rs 20 crore for the centenary commemoration on a grand scale to make the world and the Indian youngsters in particular aware of the supreme sacrifices made by those who freed the country from the British rule," Sidhu said.

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place on April 13, 1919 when British Army troops led by Colonel Reginald Dyer fired into a crowd of Indians gathered there on Baisakhi day.

While the official death toll was placed at 379 and the number of injured at 1,100, the Indian National Congress put the figures at approximately 1,000 deaths and more than 1,500 injured.