UKhand CS Radha Raturi restricts videography, dancing, making reels etc within 50 metres of Kedarnath temple vicinity

The Uttarakhand chief secretary Radha Raturi has today announced that in the periphery of fifty metres near the Kedarnath Temple premises shooting of reels, videography ,dance or any activity that disturbs the tranquility of the area and leads to disturbance has been strictly forbidden legally and anyone violating the norms would be penalized. However, she allowed use of mobile phones in the Temple vicinity. There had been lot of complaints against the you tubers, people from other states coming here dancing on the temple vicinity with musical instruments and drums creating tremendous disturbance to the pilgrims coming here from different states and even making reels thus leading to commercialisation of faith and creating tremendous sound to disturb the peace of the holy township. Yesterday a video had gone viral on social media exhibiting some youths dancing at the temple premises with musical instruments being played on maximum volume and a priest literally stopping and scolding them not to do so to maintain the dignity of the historical religious shrine and its sanctity. The priest was extremely angry reprimanding the youths and warning them not to repeat this non sense again. It may be recalled that the footfalls at four shrines of Uttarakhand has increased after Covid times and this year it has enhanced enormously. According to the founder of SDC NGO Anoop Nautiyal If we have to organize Char Dham Yatra and other programs in a better way in Uttarakhand, then data analysis is necessary for that. One of our biggest weaknesses is the lack of carrying capacity. In this context, I am sharing the analysis of Char Dham Yatra of the last 3 years. If we look at the data below there had been considerable rise in the footfalls in Kedarnath, Yamunotri and Gangotri .Nautiyal writes that I urge government authorities in Uttarakhand to look into this. Maximum registration till May 14 was for Badrinath ( 35%) However, despite 35% registration for Badrinath which is on the plain areas the pilgrims who went there were only 13% amongst Dhams. This calls for careful analysis said Anoop Nautiyal.

Meanwhile two journalists Gajendra Rawat who had written a story on the Kedarnath Gold plates raising doubts and exposing the alleged wrong doings and another Manmeet Rawat from Dainik Bhaskar who filed another story mentioning ten deaths in Kedarnath and other shrines during the last few days are in jeopardy and the police have filed FIRs against them. The former president of Press Club of India Umakant Lakhera has condemned this act strongly writing in social media platform X : It is extremely shameful and reprehensible that false cases are being registered against journalists who expose the failures of the government and administration in Uttarakhand. If a journalist or reporter exposes the shortcomings of the system, then doing so helps the government or administration in improving the system wrote Sr journalist Lakhera. The CPI( ML) leader Indresh Maikhuri is a strong worded reaction said that the BJP government in Uttarakhand is constantly victimising the journalists who are exposing the ills of the system and the government . He condemned it in strongest possible terms and demanded revocation of the FIRs lodged against both the journalists.