Uttarakhand government suspends Char Dham Yatra amid COVID surge
CM Tirath Singh Rawat said, "Uttarakhand government has suspended Char Dham Yatra this year in view of Covid-19 situation in the state. Only priests of the four temples will perform rituals and puja."
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FollowIn the wake of the rising Covid-19 cases in the country, the Uttarakhand government has suspended the Char Dham yatra this year, Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat said on Thursday.
Rawat said that only priests of the four temples will perform rituals and puja. The yatra was scheduled to start from May 14.
He said, "Uttarakhand government has suspended Char Dham Yatra this year in view of Covid-19 situation in the state. Only priests of the four temples will perform rituals and puja."
The Char Dham – Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri are located in the state’s Garhwal region. The state government had earlier prepared a draft Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for registration of pilgrims and visit. The draft was not made public as the government decided to review the situation.
The Yatra is managed by the Char Dham Devasthanam Board. In 2019, nearly 38 lakh pilgrims visited the holy shrines, but in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only 4.2 lakh could embark on the holy pilgrimage.
Preparations are underway for the opening of the portals of Badrinath Dham. The temple will open on Brahmamuhurt at 4.15 am on May 18. The portals of the Kedarnath temple in the Rudraprayag district will be opened for pilgrims on May 17.
India's Covid-19 situation remains grim. A record single-day rise of around 3.8 lakh cases over the last 24 hours pushed the overall tally to 1,83,76,524 on Thursday.
India has been seeing over 3 lakh new cases every day for over a week now. India has been seeing over 3 lakh new cases every day for over a week now after the country first topped the 300,000 mark on April 22 when 314,835 cases tested positive.
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