Uttarakhand’s Chardham Yatra and Hemkund Sahib Yatra postponed till September 5 due to heavy rainfall alerts and safety concerns, says government.
The Uttarakhand’s Chardham Yatra—pilgrimage to holy shrines of Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath— and the Hemkund Sahib Yatra have been temporarily postponed till September 5 by the Uttarakhand government in view of red and orange alerts of heavy rainfall issued by the Meteorological Department.
Vinay Shankar Pandey, Secretary to Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and Commissioner of Garhwal Division, said the decision was taken as a precautionary measure with extremely heavy rainfall forecast for the coming days.
“Due to heavy rains, the roads are being obstructed due to landslides or debris in many places in the state, which the government is opening on priority, but in view of the safety and convenience of the passengers, it has been decided to postpone the Chardham and Hemkund Sahib Yatra till September 5,” news agency ANI quoted Pandey as saying.
Pandey further appealed to the passengers not to depart on the travel routes for the time being in view of the adverse weather conditions and to follow the advisory issued by the administration.
The Met department has issued a red alert for Dehradun, Tehri, Pauri and Haridwar on Monday, warning of extremely heavy to very heavy rain. For September 2, an orange alert has been sounded for Dehradun, Uttarkashi, Rudraprayag, Chamoli and Bageshwar.
Amid the warnings, schools have been closed in several districts, including Dehradun, Tehri, Pauri and Champawat.
Following the warning, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Sunday directed the officials to remain alert 24×7.
The Chief Minister, in a meeting with senior officials, said that the coming few days will be challenging, and appropriate steps should be taken to ensure the safety of common people.
Dhami asked the State Disaster Management and Rehabilitation Secretary Vinod Kumar Suman to monitor the situation from the State Emergency Operations Centre (SEOC), given the high possibility of landslides and waterlogging in many areas.
“We are providing immediate assistance to those whose houses have been affected by the disaster and are relocating them to safe places. Camps have also been set up. Our goal is to ensure that all basic needs are met in the relief camps… Efforts to open the blocked roads are underway…,” he added.
Cloudbursts, landslides, and flash floods in recent days have wreaked havoc across Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, and Uttarakhand, with the Central government constituting Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCTs) to assess the damage caused by heavy rainfall, officials said.
All educational institutions across the state have been instructed to remain closed on Monday after the India Meteorological Department (IMD) warned that heavy rainfall could trigger landslides and flash floods in Uttarakhand in September.