Tall claims & meetings alone will not help manage Yatra better
By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 17 May: Despite huge claims on efforts to ensure a smooth Char Dham Yatra for the devotees, the ground realities appear to be quite different. For the past few years, Uttarakhand Government has been focussing on attracting as many pilgrims to the Char Dham shrines as possible. This has resulted in an unprecedented rush of pilgrims to Char Dham shrines this year. In view of the fact that all the Char Dham shrines are located high in the hills which have rather narrow roads, huge traffic jams have ensued at the Yatra routes, particularly along the Yamunotri and Gangotri Yatra routes. The situation is only slightly better along the Kedarnath and Badrinath routes but the problem persists. In view of this, some pertinent questions are again being raised like the carrying capacity of the Char Dhams.
Traffic jams and other inconveniences like lack of adequate availability of drinking water and food arrangements and even adequate resting and sleeping places at the registration counters in Rishikesh and Haridwar are being reported. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and Chief Secretary Radha Raturi are holding regular review meetings and issuing necessary instructions but the situation on the ground does not appear to be significantly improving. There are also claims of gagging the media by filing cases against some journalists for reporting deaths of the pilgrims. Not only is there a huge crowd at the offline registration counters in Rishikesh and Haridwar waiting for registration and then waiting for their turn to travel, those having registration documents in their hands are also being left stranded for hours along the Yatra routes. This has resulted in minor scuffles between the administration and the pilgrims who have been complaining of lack of amenities like place to rest, drinking water and food and toilets and of undue harassment by the administration. It is pertinent to point out here that, at the direction of the Chief Minister, offline registrations have been put off at Rishikesh and Haridwar registration centres which has resulted in swelling of crowds at the transit camps. Some pilgrims are even complaining that despite possessing online registration papers, they have not been allowed to proceed for the Yatra.
The patience of the pilgrims staying at the Rishikesh transit and Haridwar transit camps seems to be wearing out. Pilgrims are reportedly being forced to sleep in the open and they created a ruckus today. Till now, booking of 500 buses have been cancelled. Due to the new guidelines for registration, problems have arisen for the pilgrims who have already reached the state for the journey. The pilgrims staying in the transit camp for several days are suffering the most and they are already expressing their anguish against the administration. The Yatra arrangements are appearing to be grossly inadequate.
Despite CM Pushkar Singh Dhami being at ground Zero in Barkot to review Yatra arrangements for Yamunotri and senior IAS officer R Meenakshi Sundaram camping in Uttarkashi, the situation does not seem to be improving significantly. The administration has been directed by the CM and Chief Secretary to ensure that the pilgrims at the transit camps and at all halting places along the Yatra route are provided lodging, food, water, milk and other essential needs like toilets, and the administration is claiming that adequate arrangements have been made. These claims are being challenged and refuted by the pilgrims.
At the transit camps, the pilgrims are complaining that they are being forced to sleep in the open and rest during the day by the sides of their buses with the full sun hitting them hard. The administration has claimed that there are adequate food arrangements at the transit camps and halting sites, but the pilgrims are complaining that they are forced to prepare their own food and make their own arrangements for water and milk. With the offline registrations having been put off for a while, till the situation eases, their stay at the transit camps is only being prolonged further. Many passengers have been in the transit camp since 11 May and their patience is naturally wearing off. But till date they have not been registered. Many people are forced to return due to non-registration. They are having to bear the brunt of the shortcomings of the Uttarakhand administration.
As per some reports reaching here, the administration has started stopping vehicles in Bhadrakali in the name of checking. During this time, there was a traffic jam in the area of about one and a half km from Bhadrakali to Nataraj Chowk in Rishikesh. Meanwhile, crowds of pilgrims are swelling also in Kedarnath Dham. In just seven days, more than 1.84 lakh pilgrims have visited Kedarnath. From footpaths to highways and Dhams, only pilgrims are visible. Due to the increase in the crowd of devotees, the police are also facing difficulties in handling the system and scuffles between the pilgrims and the police personnel has become the order of the day.
The government has fixed the numbers of pilgrims for daily darshan at each shrine but the pilgrims are also reported to be proceeding to the Char Dham shrines even before their scheduled date of Yatra as per the registration. It may be recalled that the government has fixed at 15,000 pilgrims per day at Badrinath, 12,000 at Kedarnath, 7,000 at Gangotri and 4,000 at Yamunotri. About five thousand devotees can stay in Gangotri and Yamunotri Dham in a day. While devotees can stay in both hotels and ashrams in Gangotri Dham, there are hardly any hotels in Yamunotri Dham and only ashrams are available. In Yamunotri, only Kalindi Ashram, Yamuna Ashram, Ramanand Ashram and Hanuman Mandir are places where around 500 pilgrims can stay. While in Gangotri, there are about 50-60 small and big hotels, besides the guest house of Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam. There are six to seven ashrams at the Dham, which provide accommodation facilities to the devotees.
This again is a pointer to the need for the government to regulate the Char Dham Yatra and not come under any pressure of the locals who oppose the daily quotas or to create any records. While the construction of all weather roads along the Yatra routes has improved the capacity of the roads to bear more load as compared to the past, these roads are still narrow. Also the experts point towards environmental vulnerability of the Char Dhams, all of them being located high in the mountains and a huge human presence leaves an adverse footprint on the local environment. This again stresses on need to regulate the Yatra despite the fact that it is considered to be the lifeline of the local people in the hill districts of Garhwal. The experts stress on the need for environmentally sustainable Char Dham Yatra. Will the government listen, is the bigger question!
