NDTV.com: Row over land to Amarnath shrine board

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Updated: November 21, 2009 22:34 IST

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Row over land to Amarnath shrine board

Nazir Masoodi

Friday, June 20, 2008, (Srinagar)

The Amarnath Yatra is at the centre of a political clash in Jammu and Kashmir and caught in the middle is the Governor who heads the Amarnath shrine board.

Ruling coalition ally PDP has filed a complaint against the Governor's principal secretary and shrine board CEO Arun Kumar for allegedly making inflammatory remarks.

"By accession we have not mortgaged our honour and integrity. We are not anybodies slaves and if officer like that are not punished and removed from the state, there will be wide range agitation for which officer and his boss will be responsible," said Muzaffar Hussain Baig, Deputy Chief Minister, J&K.

The controversy began after 40 hectares of forest land at Baltal were transferred to the shrine board to build facilities for Amarnath pilgrims.

Environmentalists say the project threatens the forests, to which the shrine board CEO reportedly said that yatris are less polluting than the locals.

The Governor's defended these remarks.

"We are not the only people who have been given forest land. Several thousand Kanals of land have been given to various people. We taken this forest land of 800 Kanals for which we are paying Rs 2.5 crore," said Lt Gen S K Sinha, Governor, J&K.

With the assembly polls just months away it has snowballed into a major confrontation. The opposition says religious bodies should not be under state control.

"In the first assembly session I will reverse all this that has been done by them. Both the authorities and Vashnov Devi Trust or shrine board, whether Waqf Trust will be brought to books in the assembly," said Farooq Abdullah, NC patron.

BJP leader L K Advani has said that the problem has come up because of the nature of coalition government and that the Governor has nothing to do with it.

One of the reasons behind the controversy is the government policy of bringing religious bodies under the state's control.

Making the Governor the head of Hindu shrine boards and the chief minister the head of Muslim Wakfs, many feel that now the line between the executive posts of Governor and CM and religious institutions is getting blurred.

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