Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Sept 27: As much talked about Mata Sukrala and Bala Sundri Shrine Board miserably fails to improve facilities for the visiting pilgrims, some non-official members of the two year old Board are mulling to tender their resignation in protest against Government inertia in introducing reforms.
While legal battle in the court of law has put brakes on some long term initiatives like acquisition of land, removal of a few structures, recruitment of employees for the Shrine Board and more particularly the status of Baridars, the incumbent management has failed to implement even very basic initiative, such as introduction of Yatra Slip for registration of visiting pilgrims.
The inertia can be gauged from the fact that for the last more than one year, not even a single meeting of the Shrine Board has been convened for discussing the initiatives to improve system or reviewing implementation of its earlier decisions, official sources informed the Excelsior.
Except taking over the control of offerings, installing CCTVs around the shrines and construction of a Sulabh Shouchalya (public toilet) near the bus stand at Sukrala, the management of Sukrala Mata and Bala Sundri temples, has contributed nothing in respect of providing facilities to the visiting pilgrims, whose number swells to thousands during Navratras and other occasions.
Moreover, even after more than two years since its constitution, laws and by-laws of the Board for these two historic shrines in Billawar tehsil of Kathua district are also yet to be formulated, sources added.
It may be recalled that for development of these two shrines, Shrine Board for Mata Sukrala and Bala Sundri was formed on the pattern of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board. After passage of a bill in this regard and approval of the Governor, a notification for the same was issued on April 25, 2013 while the 11-member Board was constituted on October 18, 2013. Divisional Commissioner, Jammu is heading the Board while Deputy Commissioner Kathua is the Vice Chairman and Additional Chief Executive Officer, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, Director Tourism, Jammu and Sub Divisional Magistrate, Billawar are ex-officio Members of the Board. Pawan Shastri, Zorawar Singh Jamwal, Neelam Vaid, Dr Narinder Vaid and Sham Lal Gupta are its non-official members.
However, the much awaited Board failed to introduce reforms and take up constructive initiatives for development of the shrines and providing facilities to the visiting pilgrims due to some legal hurdles and more particularly non-implementation of the decisions taken by the Board members. Ever since coming into existence, the Shrine Board members met hardly four or five times, that too without yielding sufficient results as the decisions taken in these meetings were not implemented by the administration.
Listing some examples of non-cooperation by the Government agencies in implementation of reforms, a non-official member informed that despite an agreement, Tourism Department was delaying in handing over its building near the Sukrala Mata Shrine for setting up office of the Board as well as Registration Counter there. Similarly, he added, another old structure of the Tourism Department at Billawar, which has been lying unoccupied and useless for the Government, is also not been handed over to the Shrine despite repeated requests in this regard for the reasons best known to the concerned authorities.
Due to non-availability of an office building, legal hurdles and more particularly inertia on part of the Government, the Shrine Board is presently existing only on papers with the result that much required developmental works on these two historic and religious places have been put on hold even as the offering money is piling up in crores of rupees.
Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Pawan Kotwal, who is ex-officio Chairman of the Shrine Board, admitted that meeting of the Shrine Board could not be convened for the last some time because of other engagement of the members. “However, the administration is committed to provide best possible facilities to the visiting pilgrims and in this connection, we are going to convene a meeting of the Shrine Board next week,” he told the Excelsior.
On the other hand, some non-official members of the Board threatened that they were left with no option other than to submit their resignation if the administration does not act before the forthcoming Navratras for implementation of the decisions taken by them for streamlining system at the shrines.
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