news details |
|
|
| No more rows please… | | SASB drops Lingam replica plans | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu | July 14
With its bundle already full of controversies, the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board has the plan to install a marble Shiv Lingum at the mouth of the Amarnath cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas following a high court notice.
The SASB had recently been issued notice by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court on the marble replica of lingam following a petition before it. However, now after learning about the SASB plans of not installing the replica, the organization which had got the marble design from Jaipur, after a written permission from the Board, has threaten to move Court.
"In view of the notice given by the state high court, we are not installing the Lingum at this time at the cave shrine as the case is sub-judice," said Chief Executive Officer of the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, B B Viyas, who is also principal secretary to the Governor.
The high court gave the notice after a group of 10 Kashmiris filed a petition stating that installation of the marble Lingum at the cave would be a sacrilegious act. Hearing the petition, the court gave notice to the SASB to explain reasons for the installation.
However, the SASB's move to drop the installation could trigger another controversy as several devotees have already expressed hurt and dissatisfaction over the delay.
The board had asked Bolay Nath Seva Samiti (BNSS) to provide the Lingum for installation at the entrance of the cave shrine. BNSS is the biggest samiti involved in providing makeshift kitchens and lodging facilities free of cost for pilgrims en route to the Amarnath shrine.
Thousands of devotees under the banner of BNSS who brought the 800-kg and 6-feet-high transparent marble Shiv Lingum from Udaipur (Rajasthan) after a fortnight-long sculpting by master craftsmen, said the board's decision to drop the Lingum installation has hurt them.
"We want installation of this Lingum near the shrine and not in place of the ice Lingum. What is the problem if the Lingum is installed outside the cave?" a BNSS spokesman said.
"If the SASB failed to install it, we will also move the court with signatures of one lakh devotees of Lord Shiva saying that we want a temple to be built outside the shrine and to install the Lingum there," he said adding that "we have faith in court". |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
