Dehradun: The tirth purohits (pilgrimage priests) of Uttarakhand have threatened to stage a protest and not allow PM Narendra Modi to land in Kedarnath for a proposed trip on 5 November. The reason for their anger is the Uttarakhand Char Dham Devasthanam Management Board — the umbrella body to regulate shrines and temples under its purview.
The priests claim the board will take away their land rights and they weren’t consulted before its formation.
The Print explains what is the Char Dham Devasthanam Management Board and why it has become a bone of contention between the BJP-led state government and pilgrimage priests.
The Char Dham Devasthanam Board
The Char Dham Devasthanam Board was conceived by former chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat after coming to power in 2017. The state government aimed to form an autonomous body to regulate the char dhams — Yamunotri, Gangotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath — along with 45 other temples affiliated to them in Uttarakhand.
In pursuit of its goal, the Rawat government began to study similar laws in other states, mainly the Andhra Pradesh government’s Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam Trust Board and Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Act 1988 of Jammu and Kashmir.
Following this, the Rawat cabinet approved the draft for the Uttarakhand Char Dham Devasthanam Management Bill 2019 and it was tabled in the state assembly in December 2019. The Bill was passed amid chaos in the assembly and protests outside the House.
The opposition to the proposed law had started immediately after it was conceptualised and cleared by the Rawat cabinet in November that year.
After its enactment, the Bill came to be known as the Uttarakhand Char Dham Devasthanam Management Act 2019.
With the chief minister as its chairman and state culture and religious affairs minister as the vice-chairman, the board was constituted on 15 January 2020.
According to the provisions of the Act, the board has 29 members. These include seven senior IAS officers as its ex-officio members and 20 nominated members. Besides the chairman and vice-chairman, other ex-officio members are the Uttarakhand chief secretary, a senior IAS officer as CEO, secretaries of the departments of the culture and religious affairs, tourism and finance, and two joint-secretary-rank officials.
The board’s nominated membership incorporates a representative of the royal family of the erstwhile state of Tehri, a maximum of six members of the state assembly, up to four members from among the donors’ groups, a maximum of five members from tirth purohits having hereditary or other rights of Badrinath-Kedarnath, Yamunotri-Gangotri and other temples concerned. One of the current board members among the donors is Anant Ambani, son of Mukesh Ambani.
The board has 53 temples under its purview. Of these, 49 temples are Char Dham shrines and their affiliates. The remaining four temples are Chandra Badni Temple, Raghunath Temple Devprayag, Sem Mukhem Nagraja Temple and Shri Raj Rajeshwari Devi Temple Raanihat, in district Tehri.
Affiliate temples are sister concerns of the Char Dham shrines as the latter have the obligation to fulfil the former’s budgetary needs.
Thirty affiliate temples are with Badrinath while 17 are with the Kedarnath shrine.
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What does the Act say
Article 4 of the Act says the Char Dham Devasthanam Board is the “highest governing body for the purpose of Devasthanam or temples’ management with the power to frame policies, make decisions to give effect to the provisions the Act, budget formulation, sanction of expenditure, planning and management of the temple areas”.
Article 3 says the Board will “provide rejuvenation for Char Dham and other temples located in Uttarakhand”.
The board also has the right to issue directions in matters of funds, valuable securities, jewellery, and properties vested in the temples under its purview. The Act further authorises the board to fix and disburse honorarium, pay and allowances for the priests and purohits hired by it.
Why are priests angry
Char Dham pilgrimage priests are angry because they fear losing land rights and their traditional share from the temple.
The Act says, “All properties belonging to Char Dham Devasthanams (religious places) to which this Act applies, on the date of commencement of this Act… stand transferred to the board. All assets vesting in the government, local authorities or persons aforesaid and all liabilities subsisting against such movement or persons on the said dates shall be devolved on the Char Dham and shall be maintained by the board.”
It also says the “board may further acquire land in or around the vicinity of the religious devasthanam and other places as it would deem proper for its better development in favour of the Char Dham”.
The priests claim the authorities will evict them from their land and dharmshalas as they have already come under the jurisdiction of the devasthanam board.
Pilgrimage priests have also alleged that their rights of holding religious functions and activities will be infringed upon by the government through the board.
However, speaking to ThePrint, the Uttarakhand tourism and culture minister Satpal Maharaj had said the land rights of those protesting against the Devasthanam Board Act will remain intact.
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Past provisions
Prior to the Char Dham Devasthanam Act 2019, Badrinath and Kedarnath, along with 45 affiliate temples, were under the regulation of the British-era Shri Badrinath-Shri Kedarnath Temples Act 1939. The autonomous Badrinath Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC) had a state government official as its CEO. But the BKTC ceases to exist now. Its staff and office-bearers have been merged with the Char Dham Devasthanam Board.
Meanwhile, the Yamunotri and Gangotri shrines were being managed by their respective temple committees run by tirth priests.
The committees at both the shrines had the right to utilise their funds for infrastructural development, renovation and upgradation of services for the pilgrims. However, their authority on temple funds has ceased to exist after the creation of the new board.
(Edited by Neha Mahajan)
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