Jammu & Kashmir: Pandits Want Shrines Bill To Protect Temples, Temple Properties

The Prem Nath Bhat Memorial Trust (PNBMT), an organisation that represents Kashmiri Pandits, is set to launch an awareness campaign aimed at creating an environment conducive for the passage of the Temples and Shrines Bill by the State Assembly. The organization has described this bill as a ‘precondition’ for ‘return and rehabilitation’ of the Kashmiri Pandit community that was forced out of the valley by Islamist forces.

This bill, the organisation states, will pass the control of shrines and temples from the elite to the ordinary people and will clear the way for the creation of an elected board that will manage places of worship on behalf of the people. The call for a decisive bill gained popular support following revelations that some organisations managing the places of worship in the state were involved in misappropriation of temple assets and illegal sale of shrine land.

Prominent shrines in the state of Jammu and Kashmir- Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine, Sarthal Mata Shrine and Shiv Khori Shrine- are managed by elected boards. On the same lines, the PNBMT wants the government to pass this bill for the creation of a body with elected members to ensure that temples and shrines are not used to further vested interests and to safeguard their assets.

Temples and temple properties across India continue to be vulnerable to bad management and corruption. In states like Tamil Nadu, government bodies control temples. These bodies are notorious for corruption, pilferage and neglect of historical monuments. You can read more about the issue of temple control and government interference in this piece.