Char Dham Devasthanam Management Act

Char Dham Devasthanam Management Act

Subject – Governance

Context – Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Pushkar Singh Dhami on Tuesday announced the withdrawal of the Char Dham Devasthanam Management Act.

Concept –

• The Uttarakhand government in December 2019 had tabled the Uttarakhand Char Dham Shrine Management Bill, 2019, in the state Assembly.
• The bill was aimed at bringing the Char Dham of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri and 49 other temples under the purview of a proposed shrine board.
• The bill was passed in the Assembly and became the Uttarakhand Char Dham Devasthanam Management Act, 2019.
• Under the same Act, the government constituted the Uttarakhand Char Dham Devasthanam Board on January 15, 2020.
• As per the Act, the Chief Minister is the chairman whereas the minister for religious affairs is the vice-chairman of the board. Two MLAs of Gangotri and Yamunotri are members on the board along with the Chief Secretary. A senior IAS officer is the Chief Executive Officer.
• Under this board, there are 53 temples, including four shrines – Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri – and other temples located around these shrines.
• The shrine board was constituted as the highest governing body for the management of the temples with powers to frame policies, execute provisions of the Act, budget formulation and sanction expenditure, among others.
  • The board was also empowered to give directions for the safe custody, prevention and management of funds, valuable securities, jewellery and properties vested in the temples.
• Before the constitution of the Board, the Shri Badrinath-Shri Kedarnath Act, 1939 was in place for the management of two shrines – Badrinath and Kedarnath – and Shri Badrinath- Shri Kedarnath Mandir Samiti for 45 temples. The Samiti was chaired by a government-appointed person whereas an official of all India service used to be the CEO.
  • In Gangotri and Yamunotri, management of the shrines was earlier in the control of local trusts and the government was not getting any share from the donations made by devotees.
• All the decisions related to utilization of the donations, funds and development works in and around those 45 temples including Badrinath and Kedarnath were taken by that committee and the government did not intervene. But through the Devasthanam board, the government tried to take control over the financial and policy decisions.