Uttarakhand Government to set up Char Dham shrine board

The Uttarakhand government has decided to set up a Charm Dham shrine board to manage affairs of 50 temples located in the State, including the four Himalayan shrines - Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, and Yamunotri. The board would function along the lines of the Vaishno Devi temple in Jammu and Kashmir and the Tirupati Balaji shrine in Andhra Pradesh. The decision was taken in a State cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

A Bill will be tabled regarding the same in the upcoming winter session of the Uttarakhand Assembly starting from December 4. The government’s decision is an attempt to oversee the functioning of Hindu places of worship in the State. Until now temples have been governed by individual committees with government representatives.

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"Chief Minister will be the chairperson of the Board (to manage the temples). If there is a non-Hindu Chief Minister, then a senior Hindu minister would be the chairperson," said Uttarakhand Urban Development Minister Madan Kaushik. “Three MPs, six MLAs, several secretaries and priests of the char dhams will also be included as members in the board,” he added.

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Functions of the board

The State cabinet gave its approval to the Uttarakhand Char Dham Shrine Board Management Legislation, 2019, seeking the Constitution of the board at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat. The board will mandatorily hold one meeting once a year and work for the renovation and restructuring of the temples under its purview. It will also protect the rights of the priests associated with the temples, sources said.

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However, the decision of the State government to set up the Charm Dham shrine board has been criticised by the Opposition. "It is not a very well thought decision of the government as they did not consult the temple stakeholders, priests, and others. The government is eying the collections from these temples," Manoj Rawat, MLA, Kedarnath, told ANI. The vice-president of Char Dham Vikas Parishad, Shiv Prasad has also resigned from his post.