In a bid to firm up plans to rebuild the Kedarnath dham, which was devastated in the wake of June-2013 disaster, the Chief Minister Harish Rawat had called a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday in which the Cabinet decided to rehabilitate all 1,000 families, including priest, who were directly or indirectly earning their livelihood from Kedar dham. This was disclosed by the Chief Secretary Subhash Kumar, who came to brief the media in the middle of the Cabinet meeting, at the Secretariat on Tuesday late evening.
During the meeting, the Cabinet has decided to rebuild the temple as suggested by Geological Survey of India (GSI). No construction on the backyard of the temple would be allowed. Besides, 70 metre area of right and 80 metre of left of the temple would be construction-free zone, it was decided. Even 20 metre on the front of the temple would be kept free from construction.
Now the Government has decided to develop the areas as Darshani (view-point) for the temple. It has been noticed that most of the temples across India have view-points. But in Kedarnath, there was no such facility due to abundance of constructions. Now an area on the front side would be developed as a view-point.
The Cabinet has decided to rehabilitate all 1,000 families, including 333 priests, who were having lands and running business there, would be provided with lands as per the decision of the State Cabinet. Around 200 religious institutions, which had their buildings in the complex, will be rehabilitated by the State Government. It has been made clear that the State Government has lands at its disposal that is more than the area ravaged by last year’s calamity.