Bring temple Bill in next Assembly session: APMCC to Jammu and Kashmir government

JAMMU: The All Parties Migrant Coordination Committee (APMCC) has asked the government to re-draft and introduce a fresh Kashmiri Hindu Shrines and Religious Places (Management and regulation) Bill during the next session of the Assembly.

APMCC has demanded that the re-drafted Bill not have any dilution and also said that under its purview should come each and every temple from Jawahar Tunnel to Uri.

"If the government keeps any temple away from the purview of the Bill, no management committee would let their temples be taken over by the proposed board and the stakeholders would launch a nation-wide agitation to expose the double standards of the government," APMCC Chairman Vinod Pandit today said in a statement here.

He said that the government had allowed the Bill to lapse in the last session and called for a fresh Bill with all amendments proposed by the temple committees to be drafted along with all stakeholders. He also said that all the temples must be included in the Bill.

Pandit warned the government that he would launch a fast- unto-death if the government attempts to dilute the Bill.

"The like-minded Hindu organisations of Kashmir and Jammu are united on this front and the government must remember the resolution of the actual ground-level working management committees in which it was clearly mentioned that if any temple is kept outside the purview of the Bill they too won't let their temples be over taken by the board," APMCC's National Spokesman, meanwhile, said.