VHP backs demand for dissolution of Char Dham Devasthanam Board
Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) has backed the demand of priests for the dissolution of the Char Dham Devasthanam Board.
VHP’s central joint general secretary Surendra Jain said a resolution was passed demanding the scrapping of the Uttarakhand Char Dham Devasthanam Act, which is also being sent to the state government, after a two-day meeting of the group.
“VHP firmly believes that management and control of shrines, temples, and muths should be freed from government control. It should be done by religious, spiritual, and stakeholders of temple committees only. The government should reconsider its decision on this aspect and revoke the Act,” said Jain.
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Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has formed a committee to submit a report on the issue of the Board after talking to all stakeholders.
At the Kedarnath shrine, priests have continued agitation against the Board for over two months.
Kadar Sabha president Vinod Shukla said from September 1, teerth purohits and other stakeholders will protest at Rudraprayag district headquarters to intensify their two-month-long agitation. Shukla said that agitating teerth purohits want the abolition of the Devasthanam Act and would not compromise.
Earlier this month, a priest from the Kedarnath shrine wrote a letter with his blood to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding scrapping of the Board to allow priests to manage the shrines as they have been doing for centuries.
The law to form the Board was passed in December 2019.
