There is no ban on worshipping of the Shivling inside the Mawjymbuin Cave in Meghalaya and the cave will remain open throughout the year from 9am to 5pm, according to Assam-based Hindutva outfit, Kutumba Surakshya Parishad (KSP).

A statement issued by the KSP president Satya Ranjan Borah announced the developments after a stakeholders’ meeting, organised by the East Khasi Hills district administration in Shillong, on the proposed annual yatra to the Krem Mawjymbuin Cave at Mawsynram, on Friday.

The development assumes importance because the Dorbar Shnong (village council) of Mawsynram where the cave is located had denied permission for the annual Yatra/pilgrimage held in Sawan/Shravan ( July-August).

Leading Meghalaya organisations and citizens had backed the village council’s decision of not allowing religious rituals at a tourist site. Meghalaya is a Christian-majority state.

The KSP president, who was one of the invitees to Friday’s meeting, thanked the Meghalaya government and the East Khasi Hills district administration for organising the meeting.

Borah said the meeting also decided to make “significant arrangement, if required for the devotees during the time of Shravan” but “no smoke generated items will be allowed inside the cave” because of environmental issues.

The Shivling is made of stalagmite.

Friday’s meeting was called in the wake of the KSP’s threat to impose a blockade on the Guwahati-Shillong road at Brynihat before Christmas if its request to the East Khasi Hills district administration on December 16, urging the Meghalaya government to take necessary steps to respond for resumption of worship of the naturally-formed Shivling inside the cave, was not met.

The Meghalaya High Court had on August 7 directed the village council and Yatra, the organisation which had moved the court, to amicably resolve the annual pilgrimage issue. Yatra had been organising the annual pilgrimage since 2011 but the village council last year denied permission even though Yatra had secured permission from the district administration.

The East Khasi Hills district administration had on December 23 informed the Rangbah Shnong (Dorbar Shnong) and Central Puja Committee, Meghalaya, East Khasi Hills about holding a meeting of the committee “looking after the maintenance, management and other matters related to the Cave” from 11 am on January 3.

The meeting would also “discuss on the issue of the proposed Yatra atMawjymbuin...”

Borah said they had to intervene after being approached by two Meghalaya-based organisations in Guwahati — Seng Khasi Hima Mawsynram (Meghalaya) and Meghalaya Indigenous Minorities Tribal Forum (MIMTF). The organisations wanted KSP’s “support towards getting their constitutional right to worship back in the Mawjymbuin Cave Shivling...”

The KSP statement, issued by Borah, said, “We are thankful to the government of Meghalaya and East Khasi Hills District Administration for organizing the meeting and express their intention to solve the dispute. As because the stakeholders agreed to keep the worship on in the Mawjymbuin Cave Shivling, so we will keep our faith in them... We are hopeful and will have to keep our patience for the greater interest of the Nation.”

Borah said they submitted a letter to Meghalaya chief minister through the district East Khasi Hills district administration briefing him “about our motive” to get involved with the cave issue and also “offered our suggestions to make the cave more significant in thenational context.”

“We are pleased and honoured that the stakeholders agreed to our suggestions and accepted them,” Borah said.

Sources said that it was was clarified at the meeting that there was “no ban” on visitors praying before the Shivling but they have to abide by the SOP of the village council, which allows visitors to pray “in gesture” without pouring milk or offering flowers or conducting rituals disturbing the “sanctity” of the cave, which is “not a religious site”.”