Dehradun, 9 April 2005
Till now people were facing strike by traders, employees, auto drivers or unions but now there is another group who has taken the route of strike to bring attention to their demands.
Pilgrims who are about to visit Uttaranchal next month are likely to face problems. Char-Dham (Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamnotri) priests are protesting against the introduction of ‘Unified Act’ under which the arrangements for the pilgrimage will be done by the Char Dham Development Committee, a government organisation.
Priests have warned the authorities that if the government does not take this proposal back then they would not open the doors of the temple for the pilgrims coming next month.
“We will fight against the Act proposed by the government. We will not execute this Act even if we have to sacrifice our life for it,” said Jagdish Prasad Dimiri, vice-president Char Dham Sangarsh Samiti.
Hundreds of people form various parts of the world come to visit Dehradun popularly known as Dev Bhoomi. Till date the management of all the four pilgrims were done by the temple authorities themselves. This year state government decided to bring all the pilgrimage site under one authority.
According to the sate government, the introduction of the state ‘Unified Act’ would not affect priests in any way and the procedure will be the same as earlier.
Government officials are trying to make priests understand the benefits of the implementation of the Act.
“The doubts in them (Priests) is natural as they are not fully informed about the decisions taken by us during the meeting. So we will try to solve this problem by talking to them. I am confident that no such thing will happen which will hamper pilgrims coming here,” said NN Prasad, Tourism Secretary of Uttaranchal.
The state government has already formed the Char Dham Development Committee and it is being chaired by the State Tourism Minister. Before implementing the Unified Act, it (the Act) is going to be discussed in the Legislative Assembly. But the protest shown by the Char Dham Sangarsh Committee before implementation of the Act might affect the Char Dham pilgrimage.
News Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com
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