Srinagar, June 29
The Jammu and Kashmir Governor, Lt-Gen S.K. Sinha (retd), has ordered a probe by a retired judge of the High Court into the allegations, inter alia, of tampering with the ice lingam of Lord Shiva in the holy cave of Amarnath.

As per a notification, Justice K.K. Gupta (retd) would hold the inquiry and submit his report to the Amarnath Shrine Board within a month, an official statement said here. The judge would also look into the complaints of alleged unjustified charges on pony operators, labour, “pithoos”, tent and shop- owners and langar organisations without giving any corresponding services in return.

The decision was taken after consultations of the Governor, who is also chairman of the Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), with Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. The step follows the recommendations after the preliminary inquiry report by chief executive officer, SASB, Dr Arun Kumar, who had been ordered to hold an inquiry on June 7 into the complaints received from several quarters with regard to allegations of piling snow in the sanctum sanctorum.

This follows media reports on June 18 about the presence of an artificial ice lingam at the holy cave in place of the naturally made lingam, leading to a controversy and debate.

Mahant Deependra Giri, Mahant Chhari-Mubarak or holy mace of Lord Shiva, describing it as an act of a sacrilege hurting the sentiments of the people, had demanded the Central Government's intervention and an inquiry by a Supreme Court Judge.

He expressed his serious concern over the artificial and chemically made Himlingam at the holy shrine of Amarnath. "If found to be true that Himlingam has been raised manually or mechanically as reported by the electronic media, to me it appears to be an act of sacrilege hurting the feelings of the devotees," he stated.

Describing as unfortunate the attempts being made to rake up a controversy over the ice lingam formation at the cave, the Amarnath Shrine Board had maintained that there was no question of tampering with the sanctity of the revered cave shrine by the Board. A spokesman of the SASB clarified that the Board got information from its sources from the holy cave that there was very small lingam this year compared to previous years.

Accordingly, as per routine, a team of Board officials visited the cave in the second week of May and found that lingam formation had not taken place. However, the ice lingams of Parvati and Ganesha had formed at their normal place, five feet from Shiv Lingam.

Meanwhile, the Amarnathji Shrine Board here today denied reports that permanent structures were raised at Baltal or a road was being laid from Rangamorh to Domel by the Board.

He pointed out that the Board had only constructed prefabricated shelters on nuts and bolts, which can be removed when required. During the October earthquake last year, in fact, the SASB- prefabricated shelters from Baltal were sent to Uri and Tanghdar. These were the first lot of shelters to be installed there, he added.