The Uttarakhand government might desist from its plan to constitute special pilgrimage authority following the objection raised by the stakeholders of chardham pilgrimage.
The Group of Chardham Pilgrimage stakeholders raised objections to the Pushkar Singh Dhami Government’s plan to form a chardham yatra authority as a central body to monitor the annual pilgrimage to Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri in the state.
Advertisement
The main stakeholders, who raised objections to the plan, are associations or priests and purohits, panda panchayats, hoteliers and mule operators in these pilgrimage areas.
In a meeting with a high-level committee led by state Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Anand Bardhan on Thursday, the state holders’ group raised objections to the state government’s plan and suggested the committee replace it with a council as a pilgrimage regulatory authority.
The stakeholders were cynical about the chardham yatra authority as they thought it could infringe on their rights pertaining to the chardham shrines. Following their objections, the committee is now pondering over suggesting the state government to rename its pilgrimage regulatory body as Uttarakhand Dharmaswa and Tirthatan Council instead of Chardham Pilgrimage Authority.
However, the committee has not yet finalised its recommendations for the government as Bardhan stated that stakeholders’ inputs would be taken into consideration before finalising the structure of the pilgrimage regulatory body. The committee chief said suggestions from all the stakeholders of the chardham pilgrimage have been received and a final draft would be readied taking them in consideration.
During the meeting with stakeholders, State Tourism Secretary Sachin Kurve gave a presentation of the draft prepared for the constitution of an authority as desired by the chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami.
Kurve, in his presentation, informed that authority would be a three-tier body to regulate annual chardham pilgrimage. However, those present in the meeting, especially tirtha purohits association and panda panchayat representatives, objected to the formation of the pilgrimage regulatory body as authority and asked the committee to replace it with a council.
Committee, in its turn, told the stakeholders that final approval of the council or authority is yet to come from the state government.
Beside an assurance to the stakeholders that their views and suggestions will be taken into consideration, Anand Bardhan allayed the fears of the priests and purohits stating that they should not cast doubts on the authority and no final decision will be taken without their consent.
What’s notable is that a similar Uttarakhand Chardham Devasthanam Management Board was enacted and implemented by former chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat’s government in 2019 but the Pushkar Singh Dhami government, in its first term, quashed it owing to massive protests by the priests and purohits. This despite the fact that Devasthanam Board was largely appreciated by the people of Uttarakhand as an autonomous chardham pilgrimage regulatory body.
