NEW DELHI, SEPT 30: Governement has constituted a 70-member national committee under the chairmanship of prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to celebrate in a befitting manner the 300th anniversary of Khalsa Panth.The committee includes former prime ministers Chandra Shekhar and I K Gujral, Home Minister L K Advani, Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, Defence Minister George Fernandes, Parliamentary Affairs and Tourism Minister M L Khurana and Commerce Minister R K Hegde.
April 13, 1999 would mark the completion of 300 years of the birth of Khalsa. The committee will meet shortly to finalise the programmes for tri-centenary celebration.
At the international level, on the government's initiative to get declared 1999 as the Year of Human Faith, the UNESCO has adopted the resolution for including ``human spirit'' as a theme in the international year for the culture of peace, an official release here said today.
Several proposals received from the Punjab government includingassistance for establishment of a multi-faceted khalsa complex, release of commemorative stamp and commerative coin and declaration of 1999 as The Year of Human Spirit would be placed before the national committee along with other proposals, it said.
The committee also includes chief ministers of Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Haryana and Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.