Farmers Movement Archive

Char Dham priests step up campaign against Devasthanam Board; CM says decision to be taken soon

Dehradun: After recently staging protests outside residences of state ministers in Dehradun, the Char Dham priests, who are upset with the delay in withdrawing of the contentious Char Dham Devasthanam Management Board, said that if the Act is not scrapped before November 30, they will intensify protests from December 1. The priests also took out a protest march -- Aakrosh Rally -- from Gandhi Park to the state secretariat in Dehradun on Saturday. As police stopped the protestors from crossing the barricading at Subhash Road, a minor scuffle also ensued between the two sides. The rally was held to mark the completion of two years since the proposal was passed by the state cabinet in 2019. Senior Congress members, including leader of Opposition Pritam Singh and Dehradun city chief Lal Chand Sharma, also participated in the protest to express solidarity with Char Dham priests. Brijesh Sati, the spokesperson of Char Dham Teerth Purohit Hak Hakookdhari Mahapanchayat, said, “We observe it as a Black Day as the state cabinet passed a proposal on the Devasthanam Board on November 2017, 2019. We will continue to oppose the law till it is withdrawn.” He also claimed that a minister has assured them that a decision would be taken on the issue by November 30. “If our demands are not met, we will intensify our protests from December 1,” he added. Meanwhile, chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that the committee formed by the government has handed over its final report and it would be studied by a cabinet sub-committee for the next two days. “Thereafter, we will take a call on the issue,” said the CM. He added that the board should not be compared with the issue of farm laws and their repeal. A few weeks back, the priests had stopped former CM Trivendra Singh Rawat from entering Kedarnath shrine. Minister Dhan Singh Rawat and BJP state chief Madan Kaushik were also made to sit in the Kedarnath area for more than an hour and hear out the demands of the priests. Notably, the priests of the Char Dham shrines and the government have been at loggerheads on the law since its inception. Amidst heavy protest from Congress, the bill was tabled and passed in the state assembly in December 2019.

The Times of India

2021-11-28

Dehradun