The Winter Session of Uttarakhand Assembly was adjourned sine die by the Speaker Prem Chand Agarwal on Tuesday. The Assembly passed the contentious Char Dham Devsthanam Management bill- 2019 on the day amid walk out by the Congress members. The Congress was demanding that the contentious bill should be placed in the select committee of the assembly for further discussion.
Informing about the need to bring the bill for management of the Char Dhams, the Tourism and Religious Affairs minister, Satpal Maharaj said that this year 32.40 lakh pilgrims visited the Char Dhams of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri which is 25.15 per cent more than the previous year. He said that for the management of the Badrinath and Kedarnath shrines a separate act is there but no such provision is there for the Yamunotri and Gangotri.
The minister said that a report of law commission suggested that a shrine board on the lines of similar boards of Tirupati, Shirdi and Vaishnodevi should be set in Uttarakhand. He added that the definition of stakeholder is given in the bill and interests of all stakeholders would be protected.
The Leader of Opposition (LoP) Indira Hridayesh said that since the bill was brought in haste it should be handed over to the select committee of the house for further discussions. She said that more than 30,000 families are directly linked with these shrines and all of them are apprehensive and are on streets in protest.
The Kedarnath MLA Manoj Rawat objected to the many provisions of the bill. He also pointed out many spelling mistakes and objected to the use of shrine and Char Dham in the bill. Rawat said that as per the Hindu beliefs only Badrinath is the Dham while Kedarnath is a Jyotirlinga and the temples of Gangotri and Yamunotri are Teerths.
He said that the government is saying that the interests of all stakeholders would be protected but questioned the presence of only three representatives of stakeholders in the 26 member board.
Jageshwar MLA Govind Singh Kunjwal said that the Teerth Purohits are on the path of agitation on the bill and the draft of the bill has many flaws. He said that the Government should respect the public sentiment and send the bill to select committee. Participating in discussion, the BJP MLA, Munna Singh Chauhan defended the bill.
He however pointed towards many mistakes in the bill which according to him can create problem in the court. The BJP MLA from Badrinath, Mahendra Bhatt suggested that since the bill provides for only one vice president (VP), another post of VP should be created and the appointment to it should be from among the stakeholders.
He added that the jobs of all the employees of the BKTC should be protected and the number of the members from among the stakeholders should be increased in the board. Gangotri MLA, Gopal Singh Rawat said that the interests of the shopkeepers around the Gangotri temple should be protected. The Yamunotri MLA Kedar Singh Rawat also participated in the discussion.
In his response, Satpal Maharaj assured that the positive suggestions of the members would be accepted. Incidentally after the opposition raised by the MLAs on the use of word ‘shrine’ in the bill tabled in the Assembly, the Government removed the word shrine and added ‘Devsthanam’ in its place. The Assembly also gave its nod to the Code for Criminal Procedure (Uttarakhand amendment) bill- 2019 which paved the way for grant of anticipatory bail in Uttarakhand.
After adjourning the assembly, the speaker said that a total 19 bills were passed by the assembly in the winter session.
Similarly six ordinances were placed in the assembly during the session. He said that he received 29 petitions of members and all of them were accepted. Similarly 125 notices were received under rule 300 out of which 28 were accepted.
