Manmohan to release coins on J&K shrine board silver jubilee

The Prime Minister will release two commemorative coins specially designed by the Reserve Bank of India — and which have great significance for Jammu and Kashmir — to mark the silver jubilee of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board (SMVDSB) in New Delhi on Thursday. According to highly placed government sources, Dr. Manmohan Singh will release two coins, of Rs. 5 and Rs 10 denominations, which will have the embossing of the form of the revered Mata Vaishno Devi, who is believed to be the eldest deity among the six other Devi shrines between the Yamuna and the Chinab rivers in north India.

Governor Narender Nath Vohra, who functions as Chairman of the SMVDSB, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and members of the shrine board, besides the representatives from Ministry of Finance and RBI, are expected to attend the ceremony at the Prime Minister’s residence. Sources in the Prime Minister’s Office as well as the J&K cadre IAS officers who have worked in the Finance Ministry confirmed to The Hindu that a coin with special relevance to Jammu and Kashmir was being released by the RBI for the first time. They said the Department of Posts and Telegraph had in the past released some postal stamps commemorative of places, persons and events in Jammu and Kashmir. Even a ship in the name of Habba Khatoon — a renowned icon of Kashmiri romantic poetry and wife of Kashmir’s last sovereign king Yousuf Shah Chak, who was dethroned by the Mughals in the 16th century — was launched on the Sea of Bengal around 30 years ago.

During the Governor’s rule in J&K, former Governor Jagmohan Malhotra had created the SMVDSB in August 1986 to manage the services and the round-the-year pilgrimage at the State’s arguably most revered Hindu shrine. Farooq Abdullah’s National Conference-led coalition government later ratified the Governor’s initiative through the Jammu and Kashmir Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Act, 1988. Under the provisions of the law, the Governor acts as Chairman and appoints not more than 10 persons as members of the board. The main objective of the Act was to provide for better management and governance of the shrine and its endowments, including the appurtenant lands and buildings, previously managed by a private religious body.  With the offerings running into crores of rupees and quintals of gold, over ten million pilgrims pay their obeisance to the goddess of energy near Katra on the Shivalik mountain range in Reasi district of Jammu every year

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-newdelhi/manmohan-to-release-coins-on-jk-shrine-board-silver-jubilee/article4363307.ece