KP bodies demand setting up of Shrines & Temples Board

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 19: Two Kashmir based Pandit organizations have demanded setting up of  “Temples and Shrines Protection Board immediately so that existing religious places are secured from vandalism and land grabbers in Kashmir Valley.
Accusing the political parties of scuttling the passage of Temples and Shrines Bill in the State, these organizations in a memorandum to Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh demanded that immediate steps be taken to project the temples and shrines of Kashmir as they are facing the wrath of secessionists and communal forces in view of the fact that many of them have been razed to ground and a number of houses were erected on the land of these shrines.
They said the Bill was scuttled by political parties in legislature and KPs are begging before the legislators to get the bill passed stated the memorandum presented to Home Minster recently by B B Bhat president Zeashta Devi Prabandak Committee and B L Bhan chairman of Temples and Shrines Management Board (TSMB) Kashmir.
They demanded that till the Bill is passed, a Shrines and a Temples Board be constituted in the State. They maintained that being aborigines, the Pandits be settled in Valley.