VHP backs priests’ demand for scrapping of Char Dham Board
HARIDWAR: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has supported the demand of the priests agitating for dissolution of the Char Dham Devasthanam Board, constituted by the Uttarakhand government in 2019.
Priests and temple committees of Char Dham shrines and 47 other temples launched a statewide agitation from Tuesday to protest the delay in scrapping the Board. Char Dham shrines are Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri.
At the conclusion of a two-day meeting of its Uttarakhand division working committee meeting in Haridwar on Tuesday, the VHP passed a resolution, demanding that shrines, temples and muths be freed from government control.
VHP central joint general secretary Surendra Jain said the resolution seeking scrapping of the Uttarakhand Char Dham Devasthanam Act, 2019, will be sent to the state government.
“We firmly believe that the management of shrines, temples and muths should be freed from government control. It should be done by religious, spiritual, social persons and stakeholders of temple committees only. Government should reconsider its decision on this aspect and revoke the Act,” Jain said.
Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has formed a committee, chaired by former state minister Manohar Kant Dhyani, to submit a report on the issue of Char Dham Devasthanam Board after talking to all stakeholders.
The agitation of priests at the Kedarnath shrine against the Board reached 65th day.
“From September 1, teerth purohits and stakeholders will protest at Rudraprayag district headquarters to intensify their two-month-long agitation,” Kedar Sabha president Vinod Shukla said. “Agitating teerth purohits want scrapping of the Devasthanam Act and won’t compromise with anything less than that.”
Earlier this month, a priest from Kedarnath wrote a letter with his blood to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding scrapping of the Devasthanam Board and allowing priests to manage the shrines.
Santosh Trivedi, a member of Teerath Purohit Samaj Shri Kedarnath and vice president of Akhil Bhratiya Teerath Purohit Yuva Mahasabha, said he was prompted to write the letter with his blood as “government is playing with the rights of the priests, who have managed these shrines for centuries.”
In April this year, then chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat had announced that the state government will review the formation of the Char Dham Board.
The announcement came after akhadas, seers and priests of Char Dham, and VHP demanded the dissolution of the board in the interest of local priests who have been traditionally managing the shrines.