Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami visited the Kedarnath Dham and performed Jalabhishek of the Gan Nandi Maharaj on Wednesday.
After visiting the temple, Dhami inspected the travel arrangements and reconstruction works. The CM was welcomed by the priests and the members of the temple committee upon reaching.
Earlier, on July 23, the priests of different temples and Dhams had met the CM at his camp office and thanked him for making strict provisions for the misuse of the name of Chardham.
Chief Minister Dhami said, “Chardhams of our state are the centres of faith for crores of devotees, these Dhams cannot exist anywhere else in Devbhoomi. Our government is committed to taking every possible decision in accordance with public sentiments.”
After the Uttarakhand Cabinet announced that the government would introduce strict laws to ensure that no trust, temple, or committee is formed in the name of Chardham and other major temples in Uttarakhand, seers from Haridwar welcomed this government decision.
one of the seers said, “Various trusts are constituted to make duplicate Chardham temples, Jyotirlingas, and peeths; the Uttarakhand government will bring strict law against this practice. We welcome this decision by the government and conveyed to CM Dhami that there should be a law to avoid such practices. There should be a ban on such saints who are also involved in this brokerage and misguide devotees using the name of temples.”
Another seer said, “We welcome this law. The government has stopped the practice of misguiding devotees in the name of fake trusts, committees, and duplicate temples. There should be no duplicates of the Char Dham Temples of India. ”
Welcoming the decision, another seer stated, “The decision by Uttarakhand’s government cabinet to safeguard the authenticity of Char Dham Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri is extremely appreciable. It is the responsibility of the government and saints to manage the dignity of Char Dham, as it is one of the important pilgrimages in our culture. It is also the place where our guru Shankaracharya did his penance, that’s why this place is more important. These rules should be strictly imposed.
This development comes in the wake of the recent controversy over a Shri Kedarnath Dham Delhi Trust’s proposal to build a duplicate Kedarnath temple in the Burari region of Delhi. (ANI)