With an unprecedented number of pilgrims visiting the Char Dham temples in Uttarakhand, and videos of chaos and mismanagement going viral on social media, the Home Ministry reviewed the yatra arrangements on Thursday.
Around 9.5 lakh people visited the four temples of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri in the last 14 days. While the Badrinath temple opened on May 12 for the yatra, the remaining opened on May 10.
The Uttarakhand government has spoken to the five States, from where the turnout of devotees is highest, and requested them not to let unregistered pilgrims undertake the yatra. The State tourism department has a dedicated website for Char Dham yatra registration.
In view of the crowd, offline registration for the Char Dham Yatra has been banned till May 31.
‘Rope in NDRF, ITBP’
Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla has instructed Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Radha Raturi to send daily reports of pilgrims at the Char Dham temples, yatra routes and halting places, to the Home Ministry. It also asked the State to take help of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) for crowd management.
Earlier this week, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had directed officials to analyse the shortcomings in the yatra arrangements and submit a report. His order came after several videos of chaotic scenes around the temples went viral.
Pilgrims protest in Rishikesh on May 21 against the administration over the alleged mismanagement of ongoing Char Dham Yatra. | Photo Credit: PTI
Attending the briefing of the Home Ministry through video conferencing, Ms. Raturi informed the Centre that till May 22, of the total 31,18,926 registrations, 4,86,285 devotees were for Yamunotri, 5,54,656 for Gangotri, 10,37,700 for Kedarnath, 9,55,858 for Badrinath and 84,427 for Hemkund Sahib.
“This year 127 per cent more pilgrims visited Yamunotri in the first 10 days of yatra as compared to the last two years, while the surge in devotees visiting Gangotri is 89 per cent more than the last two years,” said Ms. Raturi.
She added that devotees visiting Kedarnath is 156 per cent more than the last two years (in first 10 days) while Badrinath has seen a surge of 27 per cent pilgrims.
Request to States
The Chief Secretary said the highest number of devotees came from nine States – Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Bihar, Haryana, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh – and Delhi. “We have requested Chief Secretaries of all the States to ensure that the pilgrims come here only after registration. To maintain order, offline registration of the Char Dham Yatra has been banned till May 31,” she added.
The Union Home Secretary has given instructions to the State government to form a committee to streamline yatra arrangements in future. He has laid special emphasis on strict monitoring of travel management at the ground level.
