HC stays permission for Char Dham yatra
DEHRADUN: The Uttarakhand high court on Monday stayed the state cabinet’s decision to allow the Char Dham pilgrimage from July 1 for the locals of the three districts where the four revered Himalayan shrines are located, and directed the state government to livestream the daily prayers and rituals held there instead.
While the Kedarnath shrine is in Rudraprayag district, Badrinath
shrine is in Chamoli district, Yamunotri and Gangotri shrines are in Uttarkashi district.
The division bench of chief justice RS Chauhan and justice Alok Verma, while expressing dissatisfaction over the affidavit filed by the state government amid fears of a third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and the emerging Delta Plus variant, said the yatra should not be allowed. The bench said it was not satisfied with the pre
paredness of the government, especially regarding the healthcare facilities and status of Covid-19 inoculation in these three districts.
The court was hearing a bunch of public interest litigations (PIL) filed by petitioners Sachdanand Dabral, Dushyant Mainali, Anu Pant and Rajendra Arya on issues with the fight against the Covid-19 epidemic in the state.
Mainali said the high court was dissatisfied with the affidavit submitted by the state government. “The court remarked that it seemed the state government had copied the SOP it had prepared for Mahakumbh as there are references about arrangements in Haridwar and Dehradun in it,” he said
As of Tuesday night, Uttarakhand had 2,465 active cases of the coronavirus.
The observations of the court come amid an ongoing probe by the Haridwar administration into charges that two private labs and a Noida-based agency conducted roughly 100,000 fake tests during the Mahakumbh in April. The allegations were triggered after a Faridkot resident complained to the authorities that he received a message for collecting his Covid-19 report despite never having been tested.
Roughly 9.1 million people took the holy dip in the Ganga, coinciding with a devastating surge in coronavirus infections. The Kumbh mela was cut short on April 17 but by then, officials in many north Indian states had found infections in people who had travelled to Haridwar.
The state cabinet had allowed the Char Dham yatra for the locals in the three districts in its meeting chaired by chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat on Friday. The state government had to inform the high court regarding its decision on the Char Dham yatra on Monday.
Mainali said regarding the issue of livestreaming, the advocate general of Uttarakhand SN Babulkar raised concerns about security,since these shrines are in districts bordering China. “The high court responded by saying that livestreaming is already happening at noted shrines of the country like Mahakal in Indore. The court also pointed out that it is not asking to livestream the location of the shrines but prayers being offered inside the sanctum sanctorum,” he said.
“In the last hearing on June 23, the high court had urged the state government to livestream the prayers. This time, too, the high court has insisted it do so,” he said.
On June 23, the high court had lashed out at the state government for having announced Char Dham yatra from July 1 amid fears of the third wave and Delta Plus variant. The court had directed the state government to review its decision in the cabinet meeting and inform it about the same on June 28.
“Perhaps the Char Dham Yatra needs to be postponed or cancelled, as already the Amarnath Yatra has been cancelled by the Jammu & Kashmir administration,” The court said.
The high court in its June 23 order had also remarked that considering the fact that a large gathering invariably leads to a spike in the Covid-19 pandemic, “this court is of the firm opinion that a catastrophe like Covid-19 pandemic should not be re-invited by holding and permitting large gathering at religious shrines.”
It also pointed out that “already holding of Kumbh Mela, and permitting a large congregation of lakhs of people on Ganga Dussehra at Har-kiPauri at Haridwar, are clear cut proof of the failure of the civil administration, to administer the precautionary SOPs.”
On June 20, the state government had announced the opening of Char Dham yatra in two phases; the first phase would commence from July 1 for locals from three districts.