The agitating Teerth Purohits and the stake holders of Char Dhams have received the support of Congress party on the issue of the Char Dham Shrine Board. The general secretary of State Congress, Vijay Saraswat, said that the decision of Government is deplorable and against Sanatan Dharma. He said that the State Government has taken the decision to constitute the Char Dham shrine board arbitrarily.

Saraswat added that the Government is infringing upon the rights of the stakeholders of these Dhams. Terming the Government’s decision as an attempt to get control of the religious places, the Congress leader said that the Congress party would oppose the decision.

He said that in last two and half years, the double-engine Government has done nothing to provide employment and stop migration and is instead concentrating on getting control of religious places.  Saraswat advised that the State Government should provide budget to improve the facilities to the pilgrims visiting these temples and should refrain from encroaching upon the temples on the pretext of shrine board.

He said that even vice chairman of the Char Dham Vikas Parishad, Acharya Shiv Prasad Mamgain, has shown its resentment on the decision.

The State Cabinet, in its meeting held on Wednesday, had decided to constitute a Char Dham Shrine Board. Apart from managing the affairs of the famous four temples, the shrine Board would also manage 47 other important temples.

The proposed Char Dham Shrine Board would be made on the lines of the Vaishno Devi and Tirupati Balaji shrine Board.

The Chief Minister would be chairman of the board and a senior ranking IAS officer would be the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Board.

The meeting of the Board would be organised once in a year and the Government has assured that the rights of all the stakeholders would remain intact.