Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Dera Sachkhand Ballan today on Ravidass Jayanti, with the renaming of Adampur airport and key infrastructure announcements expected.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He is scheduled to visit Dera Sachkhand Ballan near Jalandhar later today on the occasion of Ravidass Jayanti. | IANS
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Sunday visit Dera Sachkhand Ballan near Jalandhar to mark Ravidass Jayanti, a key religious occasion for the Ravidassia community with deep roots in Punjab’s Doaba region.
The visit has both cultural and political weight. The Doaba belt, which is spread across Nawanshahr, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, and Kapurthala, is home to a significant concentration of Ravidassia followers and plays a decisive role in state politics.
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The Prime Minister is expected to spend around 45 minutes at the dera, where he will meet Sant Niranjan Das, the spiritual head of the Ravidassia community and chief of Dera Sachkhand Ballan. Sant Niranjan Das was conferred the Padma Shri on Republic Day.
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According to the Prime Minister’s tour programme, he will arrive at Adampur airport around 3.30 pm and travel by helicopter to the dera on the outskirts of Jalandhar.
During the visit, the Prime Minister will formally rename Adampur’s civil airport after Guru Ravidass Maharaj. The move is aimed at recognising the sentiments of the Ravidassia community, whose presence is strongest in the Doaba region.
The Doaba belt accounts for 23 of Punjab’s 117 Assembly seats, with Dera Sachkhand Ballan believed to influence electoral outcomes in at least 19 constituencies.
The renaming follows a meeting in December 2025 between Sant Niranjan Das, former National Commission for Scheduled Castes chairman Vijay Sampla, and the Prime Minister in New Delhi. During that meeting, the demand to rename the airport after Guru Ravidass Maharaj was raised.
The occasion also coincides with the 649th birth anniversary of Sant Guru Ravidass, revered as a social reformer whose teachings emphasised equality, compassion and human dignity.
The Prime Minister will also virtually inaugurate the new terminal building at Halwara airport in Ludhiana. The project is expected to improve air connectivity for the region’s industrial and agricultural hinterland.
Located in the Ludhiana district, Halwara hosts a strategically important Indian Air Force station. The earlier airport had a short runway, limiting operations to smaller aircraft.
A new civil enclave has now been developed with a longer runway capable of handling A320-type aircraft, an official statement said.
The visit comes amid visible outreach efforts toward the Ravidassia community ahead of the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections.
Earlier this week, the Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab announced the establishment of the Sri Guru Ravidass Bani Adhayyan Centre near Dera Sachkhand Ballan. Three parcels of land, valued at Rs 10.50 crore, have been registered in the centre’s name.
Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema described the initiative as “one of its kind in the country.”
“The Punjab government stands totally committed to ensuring that the teachings and ideology of Sri Guru Ravidass reach every nook and corner of the globe,” Cheema was quoted as saying.
Dera Sachkhand Ballan, located around eight kilometres from Jalandhar city, was founded in the early twentieth century by Sant Pipal Das and continues to be a major spiritual and social centre for the Ravidassia community.
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