Taking photos, videos at Golden Temple banned by Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee

People visiting the Golden Temple in Amritsar will no longer be allowed to take selfies, photographs and shoot videos inside the shrine. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), which manages Sikh shrines, said that the step has been taken to preserve its sanctity. 

The SGPC has put a notice board inside the Golden Temple, Sikhism's holiest shrine. "This is not a place you come for leisure... it is a religious site where devotees come to pray and seek solace from their sorrows," Roop Singh, chief secretary of the SGPC, said.

"Photography and videography is strictly prohibited in the precincts of Sachkhand Sri Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple), the spiritual centre of the world," reads the message on the board put by the SGPC.     

The decision was taken to avoid any "disturbance" to the spiritual atmosphere inside the Golden Temple, the official said. Thousands of devotees visit the Golden Temple daily to pay obeisance at the sanctum sanctorum. However, media persons and devotees will be allowed to click photographs on certain conditions.  

Some people has welcomed the decision of the SGPC and even demanded that other Gurdwaras should also ban photography inside the complex.