With the State Government facing criticism for not being able to facilitate the resumption of regular ceremonial worship at Kedarnath shrine more than a month after disaster struck this high altitude shrine, the Badrinath Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC) chairman Ganesh Godiyal said that regular worship will be restarted here in a fortnight.
Talking to The Pioneer on Friday, Godiyal said that the State Government had directed the committee to facilitate resumption of the routine ritual worship in Kedarnath shrine.
“Our team is already in Guptkashi, but could not leave for Kedarnath on Friday due to inclement weather. As rains have been forecast on Saturday, too, the team will leave for Kedarnath by helicopter when the weather permits. It will take us one day to clear the shrine of debris and after that, regular worship will be resumed,” he said. Referring to the report by the Archaeological Survey of India about damage to the shrine following the flood on June 16-17, Godiyal said that the BKTC is concerned only with the resumption of worship in the shrine, while the ASI report and action to be taken based on it are concerns of the State Government. There has been no damage to the other Char Dham shrines, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri, he said.
A team from the ASI had visited Kedarnath after the disaster and reported that some stones had come out of the main temple structure in the flood.
Observers point out that the BKTC chairman had said on June 25 that regular ritual worship would be resumed in the shrine within a fortnight, which the authorities have failed to facilitate. Even some public representatives have said that considering the continued lack of coordination among various departments concerned, it is unlikely that pilgrimage to the Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri shrines will be resumed this year.
The State Government has already said that it will take at least one year to restore the route to Kedarnath. Skeptics acknowledge that the disaster experienced in Uttarakhand last month was unprecedented in recent history, but also point out that the way in which the State Government responded to it is the main reason behind the continued delay in resumption of regular ceremonial worship in the important Kedarnath shrine.