Uttarakhand will form a chardham council as the successor of Chardham Devasthanam Board of 2020 to fix carrying capacity and regulate pilgrimage to the Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri shrines along with other religious fairs and yatras in the state.
The council will have three different committees under it to manage the flow pilgrims.
A high level committee formed by the Pushkar Singh Dhami government recommended the formation of the council in its report submitted on Wednesday.
Committee recommended formation of an Uttarakhand endowment and pilgrimage council to regulate and manage the chardham pilgrimage that attracts lakhs of Hindu pilgrims from across the country and other parts of the world.
Every year huge rush of the devotees often leads to chaos and long traffic jams in the hills throwing government’s preparations in tatters.
High level committee headed by the additional chief secretary Anand Bardhan recommended that council must undertakr microlevel study of the carrying capacities for the pilgrims and their vehicles at the four shrines included in the chardham pilgrimage. There after it can fix the definite strengths of pilgrims footfalls per day in these temple areas.
Not only that high level committee has also stressed that council must study the parking capacities of the different suburbs enroute the four shrines and strategise it regulatory plans.
Apart from this Anand Bardhan committee has also suggested to make regulation and management of Chardham pilgrimage a real time and Artificial Intelligence (AI)based system. This system can help the council in its strategic planning and better management and control of the pilgrimage and crowd that oftem impairs the government’s preparedness.
In the report Committee stated suggested formation of the three separate bodies for taking care of the different functions of the council. These bodies in the form of committees will be headed by the chief minister and senior bureaucrats of the state.
Chief minister led committee will work on policy, planning and function as advisory body while second committee headed by the state chief secretary will look after interdepartmental coordination for regulation of the pilgrimage.
Garhwal range commissioner will head the third committee that will manage, monitor and regulate the Chiardham Pilgrimage. Council will have a permanent working chief executive officer. High level committee has recommended for an SOP for the officials and employees to be deployed in the Council.
It’s notable that in 2020 Uttarakhand BJP government led by former Chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat had constituted a heavyweight body devasthanam board following a legislation passed by the state assembly.
However local priest and purohits objected to and held agitations against it and Rawat’s successor Pushkar Singh Dhami government repealed it in 2021. Dhami claimed that repeal of the board resulted comsidering the sentiments and interests of the people, honour of the priests, stakeholders and others associated with Chardham pilgrimage.