Even as the high-powered committee for the tercentenary celebrations of the Khalsa Panth -- among them Manmohan Singh, Madan Lal Khurana, L K Advani, Surjit Singh Barnala, and Shabana Azmi -- is taken to Anandpur Sahib next week for an all-expenses-paid junket, the Punjab Government is sitting on a request from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to save two historically-significant baolis (water tanks) from destruction. ASI says it's unlikely to cost the Government more than Rs 15 lakh.This when the Punjab Government is flush with funds, Rs 100 crore to be precise, sanctioned by the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

A part of this money is being spent on building a new Khalsa Memorial as well as road-widening in Anandpur Sahib, where the tenth Sikh guru, Guru Gobind Singh, declared the Khalsa Panth.  In 1997, the Punjab Government wrote to the ASI asking it to declare these two baolis protected monuments and undertake their preservation. The ASI sent an inspection team toAnandpur Sahib and decided that though the baolis are significant, they cannot be declared national monuments.  The ASI then wrote to the Punjab Government six months ago, saying it would be happy to provide the technical expertise required for the preservation of the baolis at Muhewal village. But the Punjab Government would have to foot the bill of Rs 15 lakh. 

The two baolis have a considerable past. It is here that Baba Kanhaiyaji, a follower of Guru Tegh Bahadur, served water to both wounded Sikh and Mughal soldiers in a battle sometime during 1700. Guru Gobind Singh declared him a missionary and gave him the title of Sewapanthi. Anandpur Sahib is one of the four sacred places for the Sikh faith.