PUJARIES AND PETTY SHOPKEEPERS WORRIED ! THEIR POSITION IN DOLDRUMS ! NEW MASTER PLAN OF BADRINATH AREA’S DEVELOPMENT PUTS THEM IN QUANDARY !

ALL pics grabbed from BARAMAASA VIDEO

The residents and shopkeeper of Badrinath Dham situated in Garhwal, Uttarakhand – one of the significant and historic ancient temple destination built around nine hundred or more years ago are in real doldrums and jeopardy.

They are facing the threat to their existence having been living here since time immemorial possessing adequate ownership documents, house registration papers of ownership etc.

They are the victims of the new master plan of the government to build a magnificent corridor from Badrinath temple till 75 metres from all sides and whoever coming into its periphery will have go, however ancient their existence is.

The Pujaries of Badrinath Dham vicinity and the petty shopkeepers who survive on the income selling materials related to Lord Badrinath’s prayer and last rights etc are the biggest victims who shops have been razed to ground by heavy bulldozers without any written notices n pre information and several others awaiting the destruction of their living shelters and shops, the sole earning sources for the survival of their families since ages.

According to sources the heavy bulldozers are busy levelling and excavating the huge quantity of mud on the sides of smoothly flowing Alaknanda river which makes pious Ganga ultimately and throwing several tons of the rubbish and mud in the pious river making it more prone to future floods when clouds bursts occur and subsequently invite massive tragedies as the one that occurred in June 2013 and thereafter in Dhauli Ganga a year ago killing thousands of people of Uttarakhand including the pilgrims from other states of the country.

The already fragile ecology of the Uttarakhand Himalayas and the mountains seems to be in real threat by the ongoing massive excavation of land of Badrinath and the so called development in the name of building a hi tech modern corridor thus allegedly inviting ecological disasters like in the past and the one still going on in the holy town JOSHIMATH, a passage to Badrinath Dham and valley of flowers including pious Hemkunt Sahib.

The Pujaries who have lost their big shops and even petty shopkeepers having not received a single penny of compensation against destruction of their shops with their existence in danger further as huge machines are busy eroding the base of several Pujaries’ colonies etc with their houses likely to fall down as happened in JOSHIMATH, are crying but of no avail.

There are reports of several houses in Badrinath Dham developing immense cracks due to excavation of the area by big machines in the name of a new master plan that has allegedly threatened the existence of majority of the population living here since time immemorial.

According to the government norms whenever a new master plan comes into existence for the development of any area a procedure is duly followed before the master plan coming into formal implementation but in the case of Badrinath Dham and its vicinity’s development these norms weren’t followed and the houses and shops of the local inhabitants destroyed without issuing them any written notice and advance time frame to vacate their structures etc.

The four points of the new master plan to be followed which has been thrown to winds in the Badrinath Dham matter are ( 1) Before preparing any plan finally and submitting it to the State Governments for approval, the Authority shall prepare a plan in and publish it by making a copy there off available for inspection publishing a notice in such form and manner as may be prescribed by regulations made on that behalf inviting objections and suggestions from any person with respect to the draft plan before such date as may be specified in the notice. (2) The authority shall also give reasonable opportunity to every local authority within whose local limits a land touched by plan is situated , to make any representation with respect to the plan (3) After considering all objections, suggestions and representations that may have been received by the Authority, the Authority shall finally prepare the plan and submit it to the state government for its approval. (4) Subject to the foregoing provisions of this section, the State Government may direct the Authority to furnish such information as that Government may require for the purpose of approving any plan submitted to it under this section.

Not only this but about five decades ago probably during the tenure of H. N. Bahuguna as UP CM the then industrialist Mr. Birla had approached the government of UP to allow him to renovate the Badrinath temple and its surrounding precincts. Then too the state government ‘s committe under the chairmanship of ND Tiwari has unambiguously ruled out the development of Badrinath Dham keeping in view its limited carrying capacity and fragile ecology and environment including the growing mountains of Uttarakhand Himalayas avoiding any kind of tempering by the powers that be.

It also mentioned that the Alaknanda river is already facing cutting from its right side banks and its right hand bank had earlier been a glacial part, thus fragile. Hence playing with such a fragile situation of smooth Alaknanda river is not at all advisable etc.