Proposed construction of Kedarnath temple's replica in Delhi dropped

The proposed construction of a replica of Kedarnath in Delhi which had created a controversy recently has been withdrawn.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had attended the foundation stone laying ceremony of the temple in Burari.

"We decided not to construct the temple as some people from Uttarakhand objected to it and we realised that it would hurt religious sentiments," Suman Mittal, president of the Kedarnath Dham Delhi Trust, which was to build the temple in Burari, said in a press release.

"We are constructing no temple with that name now," she said.

The Trust has also stopped accepting online donations for the construction of the temple through a QR code, she said.

The priests of the Himalayan temple located in Uttarakhand's Rudraprayag district had opposed its construction saying it was one of the 12 'Jyotirlingas' in the country and replicating it anywhere else meant showing disrespect to the centuries old temple.

The opposition Congress had taken out a march (padyatra) from Har Ki Pairi in Haridwar to the temple to protest its construction but had to call it off on the tenth day after reaching Sitapur a day ahead of its conclusion when heavy rain on the night of July 31 caused extensive damage to the Kedarnath trek route.