The Uttar Pradesh government, in coordination with adjoining states, has made all arrangements for a smooth conduct of the month-long Kanwar Yatra starting from first week of July in the holy month of Srawan of Hindu calender.

DJ will not be banned during the yatra, but the pilgrims have to carry identity cards, which has been made mandatory this time.

Advertisement

However, police have been given powers to control use of DJ while Kanwar will not be higher than 12 feet.

The UP government, like previous years, will spray flower petals from chopper on the main occasion on the Kanwar pilgrims.

UP principal secretary (Home), chief minister (Information) Sanjay Prasad and DGP Vijay Kumar held a meeting with police and administrative officers of four states here on Monday on the preparations for the Kanwar Yatra.

Apart from UP, officers from Uttarakhand, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi participated in the meeting along with SPs and DMs of the surrounding districts.

After the meeting, Principal Secretary Home Sanjay Prasad told media persons that complete preparations have been made for the Kanwar Yatra.

He informed that arrangements for Kanwar camp and route diversion will be made in advance.

ADG Meerut Zone Rajeev Sabharwal, IG Bareilly, IG Aligarh were present in the meeting.

The preparations for the Kanwar Yatra were reviewed in the meeting. Along with this, guidelines were given to make the Kanwar Yatra peaceful.

After the meeting, both the officers visited Aughadnath temple located in cantonment and inspected the Delhi-Dehradun Highway. This route is the most crowded during the Kanwar Yatra and it has been suggested to stop heavy vehicles on this route from July 4.

Both the officers also inspected the Ganganahar track though which large number of Shiva devotees pass.

Earlier on Friday, several important decisions regarding the Kanwar Yatra were taken in the interstate coordination meeting held at the police headquarters in Dehradun.

Police officers from seven states Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab and officers from IB and other security agencies participated in the meeting.

According to the plan being prepared so far for route diversion, heavy vehicles coming from Delhi-Ghaziabad will be sent to Muzaffarnagar through Hapur bypass via Kithore. Similarly, vehicles going to Haridwar and Dehradun will be diverted from Mirapur via Ganga Barrage and Bijnor. This plan is not final yet. It can be changed depending on the situation.

This year, more than four crore pilgrims are expected to join the Kanwar yatra, the police have confirmed.

Security arrangements will be made by dividing the Kanwar Mela area into 12 super zones, 32 zones and 130 sectors.

Police check posts will also be set up at various places to make the Kanwar Yatra peaceful. Around 10 to 15 policemen will be deployed in each of these check posts. Some places have also been identified where CCTV cameras will be installed too so that anti-social elements can be monitored.