Former Punjab Education Minister and veteran Akali leader Manjit Singh Calcutta breathed his last on Wednesday at the age of 79.
The former chief secretary of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), Calcutta was not keeping well for the past few weeks and died at a private hospital at Amritsar.
Calcutta is survived by his wife Santokh Kaur, son Gurpreet Singh and two daughters, who live in Canada. His cremation will take place on Thursday at 12 noon.
Calcutta had remained the Education Minster in the Badal Government when Panthic Sikh leader and SGPC president Gurcharan Singh Tohra was alive.
He joined politics in 1955 when he was made the national president of the Sikh student outfit — All India Sikh Students Federation. He also remained the secretary of the Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha in Calcutta which is now known as Kolkata.
Calcutta, a law graduate from the University College of Law of Calcutta in 1966, came to Delhi in 1968.
In 1980, he became the general secretary of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) during elections of the management committee. He also became its president later.
During the lifetime of former SGPC chief Gurcharan Singh Tohra, he was elected as national general secretary of SAD, when Jagdev Singh Talwandi was party president.
In his decade-long stay in the SGPC, Calcutta, was its honorary secretary and chief secretary between 1988 and 2004.
He was elected as an MLA from Amritsar south constituency in 1997 and became the minister for higher education when Parkash Singh Badal was the chief minister and later resigned when Tohra group separated from Badal.
Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker Rana Kanwar Pal Singh and cabinet ministers, including Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Rana Gurjit Singh, expressed grief over his demise.
Describing him as an eminent Sikh scholar, Capt Amarinder said that Manjit Singh Calcutta was a staunch believer of value-based politics, and worked relentlessly for the propagation of the tenets of Sikhism.
Capt Amarinder announced that Calcutta would be accorded a state funeral at Amritsar. As a mark of respect to the departed soul, the State government also declared a half day closure of all its offices and educational institutes, on Wednesday afternoon.
Irrigation and Power Minister Rana Gurjeet Singh said that Calcutta would also be remembered for his services as SGPC Chief Secretary.
The State Rural Development and Panchayat Minister Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa said that besides being an able administrator and entrepreneur, he was an original Sikh scholar, educationist and a Panthic leader.