Dehradun, 6 October (HS). Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC) President Ajendra Ajay thanked Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami for announcing regularization of temporary workers of BKTC under One Time Settlement. President Ajay said that regularization of temporary personnel will strengthen the Badrinath-Kedarnath Yatra system and the future of the employees will also be secured. Due to this there is a wave of happiness among the temporary workers.
In the Lakhpati Didi Abhiyan-Shakti Ka Samman program organized on Sunday at Agastyamuni in Rudraprayag district, Chief Minister Dhami has also announced the regularization of BKTC employees along with other announcements. In fact, on September 28, the BKTC President had submitted a letter to Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami requesting for one-time settlement of temporary workers. In the letter, the BKTC President had requested that compared to the previous years, there has been a huge increase in the number of pilgrims to Badrinath and Kedarnath Dham this year, which has increased to more than 12 lakh since the beginning of the Yatra period.
According to Section 23 of the Badrinath Temple Act 1939, one of the main responsibilities of the temple committee is to provide accommodation to the pilgrims apart from darshan and worship. For this, passenger rest houses of the committee have been built at the main stops of Rishikesh-Badrinath-Kedarnath National Highway, which are managed by the temple committee. In these rest houses, accommodation is provided to the pilgrims at minimum rates. Before 2013, there was limited number of passenger traffic in Badrinath-Kedarnath. After the year 2019, there has been an unprecedented increase in the number of pilgrims to both the Dhams. More growth is likely in the future. In such a situation, it will be necessary to further strengthen the rest houses of the committee.
It is also written in the letter that apart from the main temples, there are 45 other associated temples under the Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee, whose entire management is done by the Temple Committee. In order to manage the increasing number of pilgrims for darshan in these associated temples and to provide easy darshan arrangements, temporary personnel on fixed salary have been appointed by the temple committee. Apart from this, the temple committee has appointed temporary personnel to control the number of pilgrims in the Dhams and to provide easy puja and darshan.
He said that at present, under the temple committee, a total of 388 posts on fixed salary are being filled for clerical, educational-non-teaching, Class IV-nature related work in 45 affiliated temples including Badrinath-Kedarnath Adhishthan, one Ayurvedic pharmacy school and eight Sanskrit colleges, schools etc. Temporary workers are appointed, who have been working for 15-20 years on low salaries. In order to secure the future conditions and interests of these employees, through a resolution in the board meeting of the Temple Committee held on January 6, a proposal was referred to the government for one-time settlement of the temporary employees working in the Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee and their regularization. Approval was given to go. At the same time, the temporary employees of Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee have expressed gratitude to Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and BKTC President Ajendra Ajay.