Uttarakhand High Court directs state govt to review its decision on Chardham Yatra scheduled from July 1

The Uttarakhand High Court has reprimanded the Uttarakhand government for opening the char Dham Yatra to Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri from July 1st.

Expressing serious concern over the government’s decision the high court has directed it to review its decision in view of the spike in Covid 19 cases in various parts of Uttarakhand especially after the Mahakumbh in Haridwar.

In a decision taken on June 20 the government of Uttarakhand has announced that the Char Dham Yatra has been opened in two phases.

In its first phase the devotees of Chamoli, Rudraprayag and Uttarkashi will be permitted to go on Chardham Yatra on July 1 whereas the rest of the willing people from rest of the Uttarakhand will be allowed July 11.

The state government had to cancel its own earlier orders to open Chardham Yatra on April 29 after it had announced the opening of Char Dham Yatra from May 14.

While directing the state government to review its decision the High Court referred the decision taken in the context of the Amaranth Yatra in Jammu n Kashmir citing the Covid 19 reason as during such religious or spiritual journeys thousands of people gather throwing up to winds the pandemic regulations, thus leading to spike in dreaded pandemic cases as happened in Uttarakhand n other states after the congregation of seers, saints n devotees at Mahakumbh attended by lakhs n lakhs of people from various parts of the country.

It may be recalled that Uttarakhand has currently more than 3.5 lakh Covid 19 cases and about 7,074 Pandemic related deaths. In Uttarakhand about 1.3 lakh cases of pandemic were registered during the month of April with Mahakumbh at Haridwar becoming a super spreader of pandemic nationally including in Uttarakhand which has witnessed tremendous spike during the second wave.

At present the the government of Uttarakhand’s SIT is investigating the Covid testing scam as well in which more than a lakh fake testings have been reported in Haridwar during April. However, some news reports are mentioning the fake testing numbers as four lakhs.

About 9.1 million people took bath on the Ganges during the Mahakumbh throwing to winds all the Covid 19 protocols thus infecting thousands of people with fatalities.

The state government had taken the decision to commence Chardham Yatra because it wanted to resurrect its sagging economy as spiritual tourism is the main source of its income offering long pending opportunity to earn to those who have lost their petty jobs, businesses and income through ponies, small shops at Ram Bara n at various temple sites, hotels n restaurants on the Yatra Route etc during the lockdown etc