Ticket to let snakelike line alone in Pashupati

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, January 4

If you are a Hindu and worried of paying homage to Lord Shiva during the special festivals at the Pashupatinath Temple, be happy and you will get rid of river-like rows from this Mahashivaratri.

The Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT) has conceived a plan to levy Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 from a devotee around the world to pay homage to Lord Shiva effective from the Mahashivaratri, which falls on February 12 this year.

“We are planning to charge a fee for the interested devotees willing to worship Lord Shiva on the very special occasions,” said Sushil Nahata, member-secretary of the PADT. “We have formed a special sub-committee on homage service today to finalise the structure of fees for the devotees,” Nahata said.

According to the PADT, it has today formed an 11-member main committee for work execution and 12 sub-committees including, security, fooding and lodging, health service to manage the efficient services during the Mahashivaratri festival. “The committees comprises of CDO of Kathmandu, representatives from security forces and social organisations,” said Nahata. “Security will be uptight round the clock.”

Hundreds of thousands devotees throng the Pashupatinath Temple on the occasion and people are forced to return home without paying homage to the temple due to the tiresome crowd and endless lines of devotees. “They will entertain the special management of separate gate and line for those paying and general devotees this year,” said Sunil Kumar Banshal, member of the PADT. “The pass system, which was misused in the past, is being scrapped this time,” he said.

The paying devotees should come in the given time and fixed rows. “They will be issued tickets of permission after paying the fees,” said Nahata. “However, everything is yet to be finalised. We will publicise the details organising a press conference,” he added.

Narottam Baidya, treasurer of the PADT, said that it was thinking of establishing the PADT as an international religious centre to attract some 2 billion Hindus around the world. “It will help earn billions of rupees from religious and non-religious tourists,” he said. “The earning will be utilised in education and social services.

They were working to overhaul the management maintaining transparency in the PADT by enforcing new regulation, which is being prepared now, said Baidya. “This regulation will also encompass and specify the charges to be taken from the devotees for quick homage,” he said.

Indian great shrines also have offered facility to the devotees to pay homage by paying charges in the over-crowded temples such as Tirupati, Jagannathpuri and Vaishno Devi. “Each of the devotees is charged of IRs 25 to IRs 5,000 there,” said Nahata.

Bidur Paudel, Vice-Chancellor of Nepal Sanskrit University, said that it should be managed as per the need of time. “There used to be no crowd 2000 years ago, but population has multiplied by millions now,” said Paudel. “Ordinary people should not be charged any cost while it can be charged from those who can afford,” he said.

Dr Minendra Rijal, Minister for Federal Affairs, Constituent Assembly, Parliamentary Affairs and Culture, said that the government would provide special security services and other management during the Mahashivaratri festival