Compelled by the heavy rush of pilgrims, the Dhami Government in Uttarakhand is up for commissioning a chardham pilgrimage regulatory regime akin to its 2019 devasthanam management board abandoned following protests by the priests.
The government has constituted a special high-level committee (HLC) to suggest the constitution of a ‘new authority or institution’ to regulate Chardham and other religious pilgrimages to the state.
Going by the information shared by senior government officials, the decision to constitute the HLC to prepare a report and recommend the formation of another regulatory body for Chardham pilgrimage was taken in view of the heavy rush of devotees for the past two years rendering the state administration helpless in managing the crowd on the road and temples.
The Pushkar Singh Dhami Government is also of the opinion that coming years would be more burdensome for the pilgrims numbers may touch one crore as predicted by the former chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat.
The HLC formed by the Dhami Government has been mandated to look into the smooth and interrupted regulation of the pilgrimages in Uttarakhand in the future. The order forming the HLC under the leadership of additional chief secretary Anand Bardhan reads: “The Committee will prepare and present a detailed work plan for the smooth and uninterrupted regulation of all the Yatras in the future. In addition to this, the committee will recommend the formation of an authority or other institution for easy and unhindered regulation of all religious yatras in the state in the future.”
Apart from this, the HLC led by Bardhan will monitor and regulate the daily flow of devotees in the ongoing Chardham pilgrimage for Gangotri, Yamunotri, Badrinath, and Kedarnath shrines. It’s significant that the massive rush of devotees, more than double the strengths of carrying capacities of the shrines, threw the state government’s crowd-management preparedness in tatters. The state administration is struggling to keep it under control.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior official in the state Home Department informed that it’s a move by the state government to go back to a regime akin to the Uttarakhand Chardham Devasthanam Management Board an umbrella body created by Trivendra Singh Rawat regime in 2019 through an enactment in the state legislature.
The Board was an autonomous body that had on board senior IAS officers and ministers from the state and the centre to regulate the Chardham pilgrimage and more than 50 other temples in the Garhwal region of the state. However, the law was repealed by the Dhami Government ahead of the 2022 assembly polls following protests by local priests claiming the board would usurp their land rights in the shrine areas.
Meanwhile, Trivendra Singh said, “We formed the Devasthanam board after meticulous studies for its need. It was the need of the hour for Uttarakhand and my government had already conceived that the size of Chardham pilgrims would touch a crore in the next few years. I still feel the state still needs a board.”