![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thenortherngazette.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Kedargold-Copy.jpg\")
The Congress leader said that during his tenure , a businessman donor offered to donate 500kg of gold in exchange for an income tax exemption certificate. The businessman purportedly told Godiyal that he had given 50kg of gold to the temple committee in 2005 but had to bear the loss as he didn’t get a tax exemption certificate.<\/p>\n
He further said that on checking at Badrinath temple, he found that the gold-plating on the outer pillars of the sanctum sanctorum had turned into brass and requested the donor to donate gold certified by the government-owned Minerals and Metals Trading Corporation (MMTC). Ganesh Godiyal said stated that, upon being confronted with the condition, the businessman withdrew his statement.<\/p>\n
He asked that when the color of the gold had once faded in 2005, how did the temple committee give a tax exemption certificate to the donor this time without checking the gold.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, Ajendra Ajay, a RSS functionary who is President of the Badri Kadar temple Committee (BKTC)\u00a0 said that permission was sought from the state government for the donor to gold-encrust the sanctum sanctorum, which was done under the supervision of the Archeological Survey of India.<\/p>\n
The ruling BJP and the BKTC have denied all the allegations made by Congress \u00a0terming these as a conspiracy against the government.<\/p>\n
The BJP said that the same donor had gold plated the pillars of the Badrinath temple in 2005 and had donated gold during the Congress regime but the Congress party had no objection back then.<\/p>\n
The BJP said that the whole work of gold plating at Kedarnath temple was worth Rs. 14 crore but the Congress is falsely claiming that the work amounted to over a thousand crores in a bid to tarnish the image of BJP.<\/p>\n
The Congress party has rejected the probe by an official and demanded a probe by a sitting high court Judge. Manish khanduri, a senior Congress leader charged that the state government has been trying to skirt the issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Probe ordered into Kedarnath temple gold plating controversy S.M.A.KAZMI Dehradun, June 26 Uttarakhand state government has ordered a probe into the alleged gold scam at famous Hindu shrine of Kedarnath situated in Garhwal Himalayas following a major controversy and slugfest between main opposition party Congress and ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Uttarakhand Tourism, Cultuare and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3434,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,91,56,39,59],"tags":[1358,1355,421,1357,1354,1356,692],"class_list":["post-3433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-national","category-politics","category-tourism","category-uttarakhand","tag-ajendra-ajay","tag-badri-kedar-temple-committee","tag-char-dham-yatra","tag-ganesh-godiyal","tag-kedarnath-temple","tag-manish-khanduri","tag-uttarakhand-government"],"yoast_head":"\n