PTI: Yielding to long-pending "demand of Sikhs", Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today announced a separate SGPC for his state, drawing flak from Amritsar-based SGPC and Akali Dal, which dubbed it as Congress "nefarious design to weaken" the community.    

At a function organised by Sikh leaders from Haryana at Kaithal, Hooda said a separate SGPC will be set up keeping in view the sentiments and aspirations of the Sikhs in his state and a law will be enacted to form the separate panel.     Hooda said that a bill to form a separate SGPC will be introduced in the monsoon session of Haryana Assembly commencing here from July 11 and the separate body would be set up as a legal entity.    

While the Haryana Sikh leaders spearheading the campaign for separate body welcomed Hooda's announcement as "historic", it evoked strong condemnation from Amritsar-based SGPC '" the apex religious body of the Sikhs -- with its chief Avtar Singh Makkar alleging that the move was Congress' "nefarious design" to "weaken" the community.   

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who is also chief patron of the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal, too was unsparing in his attack and blamed Congress for "meddling in the affairs of the Sikhs".