Uttarakhand chief secretary Dr S.S.Sandhu and DGP Ashok Kumar visit Kedarnath and Badrinath Shrines to take stock of the situation. Say all is well !

The chief secretary of Uttarakhand Dr. S. S. Sandhu along with the director general of Uttarakhand police Ashok Kumar, IPS today visited Historic Kedarnath and Badrinath Dhams and supervised the necessary arrangements for the convenience, safety and security of the pilgrims visiting here from different parts of Uttarakhand and various, states of the country.

The chief secretary also assessed the ongoing developmental and renovation works being carried out in both these portals including feedback of the master plans and construction of various works. Chief secretary Dr. S. S. Sandhu issued necessary instructions to expeditiously complete the construction projects giving them top priority. The DGP Ashok Kumar also supervised the law and order related responsibilities and issued directives for ensuring the safety and security of the pilgrims visiting all the four religious destinations. It may be recalled that few days ago after the opening of the Chat Dham Yatras there had been tremendous rush in Kedarnath and Badrinath Dhams allegedly creating lot of chaos and inconvenience to the pilgrims with complaints pouring in about expensive food items, inconvenience to have darshans of the deities n other grievances against some priests. There were also quite a media hype about the sorry state of affairs in controlling the rush as well as complaints against some police mismanagement as well. However, in his social media post the DGP Ashok Kumar has said that the Yatra arrangements are fully satisfactory now with everything perfect shape. After two years of Char Dham Yatras being closed due to Covid 19 pandemic this year there had been lot of rush with thousands of pilgrims pouring in creating choas in the initial days with complaints from pilgrims. About 46 pilgrims have reportedly died during these Yatras from the first day of opening of these portals with the administration claiming that majority of these deaths occured due to the pilgrims being more than 60 years of age with comorbidities and due to lack of oxygen at high altitude as Kedarnath Shrine is situated at 11755 feet above sea level.