20% hike in honorarium for deities’ kardars

Dhumal also vowed to uphold the tradition of the festival that dates back to 1637 when Raja Jagat Singh was the ruler of Kullu. The Raja invited all local deities in Kullu from various temples to perform a ritual in honour of Raghunath during Dussehra.

Since then,the annual assembly of deities from hundreds of village temples has become a tradition.

The administration has been inviting the deities ever since the rule of princely states came to an end and has been giving an honorarium to the ‘kardars’ (attendants of the deity concerned) for participating in the festival.

For the Chief Minister,who also paid obeisance to Lord Raghunath,it was a busy day as he laid the foundation stone for Rs 10 crore Atal (Behari Vajpayee) Dussehra Sadan,a complex dedicated to Dussehra celebrations,and released two books published by the department of language,art and culture on the tradition of the deities.

“Some kardars had some objections about the books. If you (kardars) have more information about the deities’ culture,we will bring out an amended edition of the book,” he said.

Dhumal also questioned Union Minister Virbhadra Singh’s claim about the BJP government taking credit for projects started by the previous Congress government.

He listed out four projects,including tribal girls’ hostel building,a DRDA building,new SP office building and a modern district Ayurvedic Hospital building,which he inaugurated during the day to hammer home his point.