Tuesday, 30 July 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Alleging scams in the registration process of Char Dham Yatra and in the gold plating of Kedarnath Dham, the Congress leader Manoj Rawat has demanded that central agencies such as Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) should conduct inquiries in these cases.
Interacting with the media persons at Rudraprayag on Monday, Rawat said a Gujarat based company Ethics InfoTech SLP limited was handed over the task of installing pilgrim security management system by the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Corporation (UTDC). He said that as per the scope of the works mentioned in the tender the company should also do works of trekking the pilgrims, their security and crowd management apart from registration. Rawat said the Ethics infotech SLP company is only doing the registration of the Char dham pilgrims and not doing other tasks mentioned in the tender. He claimed that the company is so powerful that when a senior officer questioned the company for not complying with the conditions of the tender he was transferred. Rawat said that the State government is paying crores of rupees to the company and is not paying any heed to the demand of the local businessmen that the system of registration of pilgrims should be abolished. He claimed that the Gujarat based company has got support of a powerful political lobby.
Taking up the issue of putting gold on the walls of the Kedarnath Dham, Rawat who also is the former MLA from Kedarnath said that the process of putting gold was completed before the closure of the portals of Kedarnath for winters on October 26-27, 2022 and after the closure no one is allowed to enter the temple. He said that when Shankaracharya Avimukteshwaranand raised the issue of missing gold from Kedarnath, Badrinath Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC) came out with some documents. Rawat said that one such document, the tax invoice issued by Mahalaxmi Amba jewellers for transporting gold to Kedarnath mentions the date November 6, 2022. Similarly the document of the temple committee shows February 15, 2023, as the date for receiving the gold. Rawat said that both these dates mentioned on the documents released by BKTC are of the period when the gold was already plated on the walls of the Dham and it was closed. It raises question marks over the entire process, he said.
Rawat said that the BKTC is operated by the act of 1939 and the financial handbook of Uttarakhand government and as per the rules the temple committee should have released the minutes of the meeting which approved the proposal of accepting the donation of gold. BKTC should also disclose the names of the employees and officers who supervised the process of gold plating. “ The question is why the company issued a tax invoice after 20 days of gold plating and how the BKTC received gold three months after it was put on the walls of the temple,’’ he questioned.
Rawat said that the gold plating on walls of Kedarnath dham is a major scam and it should be investigated by CBI and ED.
