Vaishno Devi Board Snaps Ties With J&K Bank

JAMMU - The Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board has snapped its 20-year-old ties with the Jammu and Kashmir Bank in what appears to be a fallout of the bickering between Governor S.K. Sinha and the state government. The board - which controls the popular Hindu shrine of Vaishno Devi in Jammu and of which Sinha is the chairman -has withdrawn all its money from the bank and transferred it to the ICICI Bank, sources said.

Sinha, whose bickering with Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed over a host of issues is only too well known, directed the board to withdraw all accounts from the Jammu and Kashmir Bank, the sources said.

The state government is a major shareholder in Jammu and Kashmir Bank Ltd.

The shrine board had a Rs.1 billion deposit with the bank, the source said. It had been rendering several services to the shrine board free of cost,

The shrine board had had its deposits with the bank since 1986, when the former was set up. The Vaishno Devi shrine attracts more than 5.5 million pilgrims.

The governor and chief minister have earlier sparred over the duration of the pilgrimage to the Hindu cave shrine of Amarnath in Kashmir. While the governor wanted it to last for two months, the chief minister insisted on one month.

Sinha, who also heads the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, finally had his way.

The chief minister was worried over the impact of a longer pilgrimage on the security of the state, as a large number of troops and police forces are committed to guard the pilgrimage route.

He had also pleaded that the fragile ecology of the routes to the Himalayan shrine, located at a height of 13,500 feet, could not withstand the rush of pilgrims.

More than 200,000 pilgrims have visited the shrine so far this year, (IANS) (Kashmir Observer, 04 August, 2005)