Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Urges Chardham Pilgrims to Register and Stick to Dates

Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Radha Raturi has reiterated her appeal to Chardham pilgrims to register before undertaking the pilgrimage and adhere to the assigned dates. The measures are in place to handle the unprecedented rush of devotees and ensure a smooth pilgrimage experience.

Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Radha Raturi once again appealed to Chardham pilgrims on Thursday to undertake the yatra to the Himalayan shrines of Kedarnath, Yamunotri, Badrinath and Gangotri only after registering for it and strictly adhere to the dates allotted to them to avoid inconvenience.

The pilgrimage to the shrines began with their portals opening earlier this month after remaining closed during the winters. Officials, including Raturi, are making the appeal repeatedly. There has been an unprecedented rush of devotees visiting the Himalayan temples during the yatra's initial days and these measures are being taken to ensure they face no inconvenience during the pilgrimage, she said. The chief secretary also gave an update on the yatra to Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla in a virtual meeting, an official statement said. Bhalla has directed the chief secretary to send a report on the pilgrims at the shrines, yatra routes and holding places to the Union home ministry every day, it said.

He has also asked Raturi to take the help of the National Disaster Response Force and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police for crowd management on the yatra routes, if needed. The Union home secretary said a committee should be constituted to prepare a strategy for Chardham Yatra management in the future. He laid special emphasis on strict monitoring of the yatra management at the ground level, the statement said. Raturi informed Bhalla that the yatra is being conducted successfully, safely and smoothly in the state, it said. The statement said all states, particularly Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra from where most of the Chardham pilgrims come, have been requested through letters and other communications to ensure people undertake the pilgrimage only after registering for it and come on the date allotted. To maintain order, offline registration for the Chardham Yatra has been kept on hold till May 31. The work on registration is being done by a 24-hour call centre operated by the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board. Registered pilgrims are being checked at Barkot (Yamunotri), Heena (Gangotri), Sonprayag (Kedarnath) and Pandukeshwar (Badrinath). Tokens are being issued to registered devotees for visiting the temples at Janki Chatti (Yamunotri), Gangotri Temple (Gangotri), Swargarohini (Kedarnath) and Mana (Badrinath). The statement said that arrangements have been made for devotees standing in queues on temple premises. The chief secretary informed that out of a total of 31,18,926 registrations till May 22, 4,86,285 devotees have registered for Yamunotri, 5,54,656 for Gangotri, 10,37,700 for Kedarnath, 9,55,858 for Badrinath and 84,427 for Hemkund Sahib. The 10 states with the highest number of devotees coming for the Chardham Yatra are Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Delhi, Bihar, Haryana, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh. The statement said that 1,38,537 devotees visited Yamunotri in the first 10 days of the yatra this season. This figure is 127 per cent more than the last two years. Gangotri was visited by 1,28,777 devotees in the first 10 days, which is 89 per cent more than the last two years, it said. This year 3,19,193 devotees visited Kedarnath in the first 10 days which is 156 per cent more than the last two years. Similarly, this year 1,39,656 devotees visited Badrinath in the first 10 days which is 27 per cent more than the last two years, the statement said.

Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC) chairman Ajendra Ajay in a statement said initially there were some problems as the devotee carrying capacity of temples was exceeding limits. But due to the efficient management of the state government, the travel system soon became smooth, he said. ''Despite the manifold increase in the number of devotees this year, the yatra is being conducted well under the guidance of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami,'' he said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)