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UP approves Kanwar Yatra amid pandemic
The Kanwar Yatra is an annual pilgrimage carried out by the devotees of Lord Shiva who collect water from River Ganga (usually at Haridwar in Uttarakhand) and offer that at Shiva temples in their respective states.
The Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government has decided to allow the annual Kanwar Yatra from July 25, senior government officials said on Wednesday. But enforcing Covid-19 guidelines and arranging Ganga water for the devotees with Uttarakhand blocking access to Haridwar will be the major challenges.
Uttar Pradesh additional chief secretary Navneet Sehgal said detailed guidelines regarding the yatra will be issued soon.
“Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has asked us to coordinate with neighbouring Bihar and Uttarakhand and ensure Covid guidelines are followed during the yatra,” Sehgal said.
Another senior government official said on condition of anonymity that top officials were figuring out how to coordinate with the Uttarakhand authorities after the government there cancelled the Yatra due to the pandemic, and asked the devotees not to come to Haridwar to collect Ganga water.
“We are thinking of different options if devotees are not allowed to visit Haridwar to collect Ganga Jal. One option could be to provide water from Haridwar through tankers to the devotees in UP; the other could be to persuade the devotees to collect Ganga water by staying within UP,” the official cited above said.
The Kanwar Yatra is an annual pilgrimage carried out by the devotees of Lord Shiva who collect water from River Ganga (usually at Haridwar in Uttarakhand) and offer that at Shiva temples in their respective states.
The devotees, called kanwariyas, come from far-off places, covering hundreds of kilometres on foot, and visit places along the Ganga. Apart from Haridwar, they visit Gaumukh and Gangotri in Uttarakhand and Sultanganj in Bihar.
Last year, the pilgrimage was not held in Uttar Pradesh due to the pandemic restrictions.
Nearly 5 million devotees have participated in this annual pilgrimage in the past, including around 1 million just from the districts of west UP that are closer to Haridwar.
Kumar also said that a plan has been chalked out to ensure no law-and-order problems are created due to restrictions imposed by the neighbouring states.
“We are in touch with Uttarakhand state authorities and trying to sort out the issue. We are also trying to coordinate with the Bihar authorities,” Kumar said.
The ADG also said that the police have been asked to make all necessary arrangements like preparing route charts for the devotees, intensifying patrolling, maintaining aerial surveillance through drones on the yatra route, etc.
