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| Why govt has chosen to ‘freeze’ status of Hindu Shrines bill…..? | | Community initiates to mobilize , garner support for passage in next session | | Saroj Razdan
EARLY TIMES REPORT
Jammu, June 5: It sounds ironical that political parties conduct themselves differently on issues while they are in opposition and in power. Even as it came as a private members bill, the crucial Hindu Shrines Bill was first moved by the then leader of opposition AR Rather few years back and now when NC is in power it has chosen to keep this in frozen state even after having been introduced two years back. Is this political expediency or coalition compulsion on other counts which does not allow any forward movement in converting this bill into an Act which is vital in terms of sentiments of the migrated community ?
Shelving of the Hindu Shrines and Religious Places bill by the NC led coalition government for unknown ‘motives’ has forced the Kashmiri Pandit community to take initiative at own level towards generating awareness and mobilizing support for the need to protect the temples and shrines in Valley , properties of many of which have been encroached ,illegally grabbed and even unauthorizedly sold by ‘care takers’. Deeply concerned at the fast depleting vast areas around these shrines on account of these factors, Pandit Prem Nath Bhat Memorial Trust has called upon the government to take a serious view of the matter and urgency for early passage of the bill which was introduced in 2009 and now put in cold storage. In order to push further the cause of preserving what they termed as valued heritage of entire Hindu Samaj of the country , the Trust has decided to lobby with the legislators, ministers and at the same time stage demonstrations at different levels along with other Hindu organizations . This, the Trust asserted may put in force the need and necessity on part of government to convert the bill into Act in next session.
“ It is need of the hour to act and act swiftly or else in coming years the number of religious places and popular shrines are bound to shrink further……… many temples stand brutally vandalized and their invaluable properties encroached upon by unscrupulous elements”, said Dr RL Bhat, national vice President J&K Vichar Manch. There is no check or curbs from government on these brazen acts ,he said adding that even government is conveniently using the properties for their own ends. Dr Bhatt also gave numerous instances to elaborate and substantiate his point on various government departments having encroached upon the properties of the religious places in the name of development works. He said out of around 500 temples across the valley, around 176 have been completely damaged , something which even government has admitted but the community believes there are more temples which have been subject to vandalized acts or grabbed.
Speaking at an informal interactive session over the issue, Prof A N Sadhu underlined the need for the passage of the bill as a means to protect the identity, cultural and religious ethos of the entire Hindu samaj in the country instead of viewing it purely as the concern of Kashmiri Hindus. The community members associated with various organizations underlined the need for coming under one banner , in this case the Prem Nath Memorial Trust to push forward the efforts cumulatively for early passage of the bill. Hira Lal Bhatt who gave background about the issue also stressed the need for identifying and starting fresh survey of the status of Hindu religious places which existed in valley ever since 1940. |
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