The State Government has no plans to tamper with the original structure of Kedarnath temple and the objective of the proposed Kedarnath charitable trust is rehabilitation and infrastructural development in the disaster affected areas of the State, assured Tourism Minister Satpal Maharaj to the members of the Uttarakhand Assembly while responding to a question by the Congress MLA from Kedarnath, Manoj Rawat.
The Congress MLA had submitted an adjournment notice under rule 58 which was permitted by the speaker. Questioning the objective of the proposed trust, Rawat said that the works from the funds under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes of companies and donations from individuals could have been done through the Badrinath Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC), which was set up by an Act of year 1939. Suspecting a hidden agenda in the constitution of the trust he said the people of Kedarnath suspect that the proposed trust would result in interference in the tradition of Kedarnath. Rawat sought to know the source of money spent in Kedarnath reconstruction, agency involved and their accountability in his question.
The MLA also termed the design of the three layered flood protection wall of Kedarnath as faulty. In his reply the Minister Satpal Maharaj said that the proposed trust would have disaster affected areas of entire state under its ambit and it aims for resource mobilisation from private companies under their CSR funds.