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UP approves Kanwar Yatra amid pandemic
Lucknow/Varanasi: The Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government has decided to allow the annual Kanwar Yatra from July 25, senior government officials said on Wednesday
Lucknow/Varanasi: 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 again 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 50 lakh devotees have participated in this annual pilgrimage in the past, including around 10 lakh people only from the districts of west UP that are closer to Haridwar.
However, kanwar yatras in the past have been mired in communal violence too. This time, said UP additional director general of police (law and order) Prashant Kumar, directions have been issued to ensure that no meat shops operate along the yatra routes to prevent any communal flare-up.
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. District police chiefs have also been asked to impart behavioural training to the personnel on ground to deal with the devotees.
In Varanasi, which is another preferred spot to offer Ganga water to Lord Shiva at the Kashi Vishwanath Temple, preparations have already been done following which Varanasi commissioner of police (CP) A Satish Ganesh held a meeting with senior police officials.
In Varanasi, over 30 lakh kanwariyas visit the Shiva temple to offer Ganga Jal and Sangam Jal (water from the confluence of the Ganga,Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers in Prayagraj).
The Varanasi police commissioner said any decision regarding Kanwar Yatra taken by the government will be implemented. He said police personnel deployed for the security of Kashi Vishwanath Temple and Gyanvapi Mosque would be imparted behavioural training to deal with the devotees.
Over 50,000 devotees visit the Kashi Vishwanth Temple daily on other days in the Hindu month of Shravan, while the number goes up to 3 lakh on all Mondays during the month. They include kanwariyas from Prayagraj, Jaunpur, Bhadohi, Mirzapur, Ghazipur and various other districts.
In 2020, due to the Covid-19 outbreak, only around 30,000 devotees offered prayers at the Kashi Vishwanath Temple on the Mondays of Shravan. The figure was about 10,000 daily on the other days of the month.
