Uttarakhand being the nearest hill state hardly a few hours away from the national capital, NCR and the surrounding states like Haryana, western UP etc thousands of tourists, pilgrims are thronging there during peak summers in the month of June especially.
The footfalls at the four spiritual destinations and Hemkunth Sahib Gurudwara which is situated at the highest altitude in the world have been increasing manifold. Last year there were nearly twelve lakh footfalls in all the four destinations and this year it is bound to increase on a good scale, reveal sources. However, despite all this, during the ongoing summers the rush of tourists especially from Haryana and Western UP including Delhi is tremendous.
The Uttarakhand police limited in numbers have to cope with the complex situation with immense dexterity apart from dealing with the criminals, thugs , imposters and anti social elements in various parts of Uttarakhand involved in shabby modus operandi .
There have been jams for hours together on Delhi Haridwar and Rishikesh route due to excessive traffic from Western UP, Delhi Haryana and other parts of the country including NCR. Not only this but on the routes leading to Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri, Yamunotri and Hemkunth Sahib etc the traffic jams have made the life of the tourists and pilgrims extremely miserable with hotels and restaurants short of food items and eatables at several places n pilgrims compelled to wait on jams for several hours.
Apart from this the incidents of hooliganism in Kedarnath, Srinagar, Rishikesh , Haridwar and Dehradun are on the rise with groups of youth in their personal or hired big cars carrying Pharsaas , ( axe) swords , sticks and even alleged pistols including crates of whisky and beers.
Recently several videos have gone viral in social media exhibiting a fight in Srinagar, Garhwal with some angered youths brandishing swords and running after each other to hurt them using abusive language . This scene of open hooliganism in Srinagar in the night panicked the local populace tremendously.
In another video few days ago in the Kedarnath tent area some youths were seen thrashing an individual with sticks so badly that one would reach the conclusion that the injuries might be disastrous on the victim. At Rishikesh bus or taxi stand too a video showed youths literally thrashing the bystanders with sticks with no apprehension of law.
As a sequel to all this the Uttarakhand police had during the checking caught a few cars from Delhi with occupants from Haryana carrying crates of beer and whisky to Rishikesh and above including a sharp ” axe and sticks in their car. The police seized them.
In addition to this on the roads of Uttarakhand hills, even in Dehradun several You tubers and youths with spidermen colourful attires and huge toys do their notorious feats climbing of the vehicles, Thars and cars with camera crews etc following them for shoots on busy roads to elicit massive views, likes , shares etc to mint money thus disturbing the commuters on roads etc. After lots of comments in protest in social media and news in papers the Kotwali police of Dehradun came into action and have nabbed some youths involved in these road feats on speedily running cars and lodged cases against them.
Senior Journalist and twice the president of Press Club of India expressed his annoyance on this ongoing trend and said On the Char Dham Yatra, pilgrims from Haryana travel with axes and deadly weapons in their cars. The message across the country is that Uttarakhand is the safest place for hooliganism. Nobody cares about these poor innocent policemen. There is no one to question them.
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