Seers irked as civic body taxes prayers, events at Varanasi's Ganga Ghat

Heavy fines for encroachment and littering, religious preachers dwelling on the riverbank to pay registration fee

From now onwards, performing religious rituals at the banks of river Ganga in Varanasi would cost devotees. The municipal corporation of Varanasi has imposed a tax on religious, social and cultural programmes at Ganga ghat. Seers and religious preachers dwelling in huts on the riverbank will also have to pay a registration fee.

The civic body as also decided to impose heavy fines on those encroaching and littering the riverbank. Organisers of all cultural event at Ganga Ghat will have to take prior permission and pay fees to the municipal body. However, the seers in Varanasi have opposed this move and have demanded its withdrawal. The state minister for religious affairs, Neelkanth Tiwari, has said that in the wake of protests from the public and seers, the tax will be withdrawn.

As per the new municipal norms, the religious preachers and purohits sitting at the Ganga ghat will have to pay a nominal registration charge of Rs 100 annually. If an individual or organisation performs any religious ritual, a fee of Rs 500 per day would be charged while for cultural programmes the fee would be Rs 4,000. For any social gathering at the Ganga ghat, a fee of Rs 200 is to be paid to the municipal body.  Year-long events would attract Rs 5,000 annually.

For maintaining the river and its front, the municipal body has also decided to impose penalties. Anyone found washing linen would suffer a fine of Rs 500 while those caught littering would have to shell out Rs 2,100. Disposal of industrial or domestic waste would attract a penalty of Rs 5,000 for the first offence and Rs 20,000 subsequently.