Layer of acrylic applied over gold-plating in Kedarnath temple's 'jaleri' for protection: Shri Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee chief

Dehradun (Uttarakhand) [India], June 19 : Shri Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC) president Ajendra Ajay has said that gold-plating has been done on the jaleri of sanctum sanctorum of Kedarnath temple and a transparent acrylic layer has also been applied over it so that the gold polish is not damaged.

Ajendra Ajay's remarks came a day after BKTC refuted claims on social media platforms that the gold plating of the sanctum sanctorum of the Kedarnath temple is brass. It had termed such reports as "conspiracy".

Ajay had said that gold plating of temple's sanctum sanctorum was done by a donor. The committee said the donor had expressed his desire to gold-encrust the sanctum sanctorum of Kedarnath Temple and respecting the feelings of the donor, the permission was granted after examining the proposal.

Ajay said on Monday that the artisans for applying the layer of gold to the jaleri (a small corridor leading up to the Shivling) of the Kedarnath temple and a transparent acrylic layer were sent by the donor.

He said that on Friday last, a team of six artisans was sent from Delhi to Kedarnath and they took stock of the gold-plated layers on the walls and all the layers were found to be intact.

After completing various tasks including measurement, gold-plating was carried out in jaleri on Sunday, he said, adding that the acrylic layer will prevent corrosion including that during the cleaning process.

Ajay said worship and other traditions are performed from jaleri and some gold had worn off which has been restored by the artisans.

"The allegations of gold-plated layers being made of brass are completely baseless," he added.

BKTC has clarified on Sunday that according to the provisions laid down in the Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee Act-1939, donations have been accepted from the donors and permission has been taken from the state government for gold-plating of the sanctum sanctorum of Shri Kedarnath temple.

The gold-plating was done under the supervision of the experts of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

BKTC has also clarified that the work of making the sanctum sanctorum gold-plated has been done by the donor.

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