Various Kashmiri Pandits organisations today asked the Jammu and Kashmir Government to pass the pending Kashmiri Hindu Shrines and Religious Places Bill without any dilution during the current Assembly session.
"Jammu and Kashmir Government should pass the pending Kashmiri Hindu Shrines and Religious Places (Management and Regulation) Bill during the current session of the Assembly without any dilution and include each and every temple under the purview of the proposed bill," Vinod Pandit, Chairman of All Parties Migrants Coordination Committee (APMCC), an apex body of KPs, told reporters here.
Members of APMCC along with Management Committees of temples and shrines in Kashmir Valley and Hindu organisations of Jammu region held a press conference here on the issue.
If the state government kept any temple out of the Bill's purview, no management committee would let their temples to be taken over by the proposed board, they said and threatened to launch nationwide agitation and sit on an indefinite fast to expose the government's "double-standards".
While welcoming the proposal of the government to pass the Temple Bill, Pandit said they took serious exception to the observations of Jammu-based legislators seeking exclusion of some trusts and temples from the purview of the Bill.
"It was unfortunate that Jammu based legislators were favouring a few influential people rather than the common man. We will not tolerate such an attitude and a fractured Bill if passed will be fought tooth and nail," Pandit said.
Jammu-based leaders Pritam Sharma of Kranti Dal, Karnail Chand of Dharmarth Trust Sudhar Sangarsh Samiti and Vikas Dewan of Rashtrawadi Shiv Sena have accused the legislators of supporting "corrupt" people, who have turned these temples into their private properties.
They also said that the Bill should include all temples of Kashmir region and recommended constitution of a state-wide Hindu Shrine board under which all the religious places should be included.
