Puri Shankaracharya lauds Uttarakhand government for reconstruction work

DEHRADUN: Puri Shankaracharya Swami Adhokchajanand today lauded the Uttarakhand government for the reconstruction work en route to Kedarnath but said it is also the state government's responsibility to dig the debris near the Himalayan shrine in search of bodies and dispose them of with proper Hindu rituals.

The Shankaracharya said he was taken by surprise by the pace at which things have been put back on track near Kedarnath.

"Though the damage to vast stretches of roads on way to the temple was unprecedented with many of them completely demolished in the 2013 flashfloods, progress made in rebuilding them is something beyond expectation," the Puri Shankaracharya told reporters here on his return from Badrinath and Kedarnath.

Praising the official machinery of the state government for working hard to normalise things on Chardham yatra route, he said many new facilities like subsidised good food and better security have been made available to devotees on various points en route to the shrines.

Administrative involvement in the yatra is better now with a sector magistrate deployed at Sonprayag, Bhimbali and Linchauli on way to Kedarnath, he said, adding, chardham pilgrims had no reason to feel insecure about anything now.

Replying to a question on skeletal human remains still being found in dilapidated structures close to the temple, the Shankaracharya said the state government should not give up its efforts to pull out bodies if any from under the rubble lying in the area and dispose them of with proper Hindu rituals.

"It is the responsibility of the state government to dig the debris lying near Kedarnath in search of human remains if any and dispose them of properly," he said.

Terming the 2013 deluge in Uttarakhand as nature's angry reaction to human encroachment, the Shankaracharya said Himalayas are the abode of Gods and its fragile ecology must be conserved and kept free from human encroachment.