Soon, Sri Harmandar Sahib to use phone jammers

Amritsar, Punjab: The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, Sikhs’ highest religious body, is preparing to install jammers inside the Golden Temple complex to stop the “menace of ringing mobile phones”.

The Sikhs’ holiest of holy shrine receives over 1 lakh people everyday and the entire complex literally remains abuzz with the sound of thousands of ringing cell phones.

Hundreds of devotees have complained to the SGPC and requested it to ensure that some kind of ban is imposed on the usage of cell phones within the temple premises.

SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar told TOI on Wednesday, “We have been getting complaints from devotees about the maddening tunes and beeps of mobile phones, which disturb them and create obstruction in worship.”

The SGPC has set up a panel to recommend suggestions for keeping the phones out of the temple complex. “We are planning to install jammers as banning phones would not be an easy task.” According to SGPC officials, it would be very difficult to take care of over a lakh phones everyday.

“Depositing and returning of mobile phones is a gigantic task as more than a lakh devotees pay obeisance at the Golden Temple everyday. The better option appears to be the installation of jammers,” said Makkar.

The SGPC has already installed phone jammers near the sanctum sanctorum of the Golden Temple.

“Being without a mobile phone in today’s life is something unimaginable but it is a good idea to jam the mobile phone signals in holy places,” said Ravinder Singh a businessman from Ambala who was at the Golden Temple to pay respects along with his family members.

Source: TOI