New Delhi, July 31, 2013: The Cabinet will on Wednesday discuss measures to reopen the Kedarnath shrine rendered non-functional since the June 16-17 flash floods that wiped out the temple town and killed hundreds of residents and pilgrims.

Rehabilitation of Kedarnath entails a massive operation of removing tons of debris brought down by the raging waters of the Mandakini river and excavation of bodies buried under silt and rocks deposited in the area.

Cleaning up the surrounds of the temple that survived the flood fury and restarting traditional puja at the major centre of the Hindus has been occupying the attention of the Centre as it was felt the shrine should not be shut for too long.

The government is keen not to attract criticism that it is not responding to calls by religious heads to facilitate puja although some feel the demands are a case of one-upmanship as no meaningful rituals can be held without proper removal of bodies.

The Cabinet will also take up for approval decisions reached by a ministerial group to ease foreign direct investment in telecom, defence, commodity and power exchanges, oil and gas refining and defence. It will also take up changes in some aspects of FDI in multi-brand retail.

The Cabinet Committee on Investment is also scheduled to meet on Wednesday to discuss clearances of some coal projects.

On Thursday, the Cabinet will meet to clear changes in the right to information law to undo the recent central information commission order that brought political parties under the ambit of the transparency law.

Barring CPI, none of the six political parties affected by the CIC order have welcomed the ruling. Congress, BJP, CPM, NCP and BSP have opposed the order contesting its definition of them as public authorities.

The proposed amendment is likely to exempt political parties on the ground that they do not meet the criteria of being "substantially funded" by the government to be brought under RTI scrutiny.

Source: The Times of India, July 31, 2013