Despite Covid concerns, Uttar Pradesh to allow Kawad Yatra with restrictions

Every year, tens of thousands of 'Kawadiyas' (devotees of Lord Shiva) from northern states travel on foot or by other means to collect water from River Ganga at Haridwar

Notwithstanding the concerns expressed by the Indian Medical Association (IMA), the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to allow the annual Kawad Yatra with restrictions.

In the annual ritual, devotees carry earthen pitchers filled with waters from Ganga and offer the same at Lord Shiva temples.

According to the official sources here on Tuesday, the Covid-19 protocol would be followed strictly during the Kawad Yatra. ''The district officials have been directed to take steps to keep the number of pilgrims to the minimum,'' said a government official here.

The government has, however, not yet decided if the RT-PCR negative report will be made mandatory for the pilgrims.

Also read — Third Covid wave imminent: IMA says pilgrimage, tourist travel can wait

Meanwhile, the Uttarakhand government cancelled Kawad Yatra this year in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. This comes after IMA's Uttarakhand secretary Dr Ajai Khanna wrote a letter to the chief minister of the hill state Pushkar Singh Dhami urging him not to allow the annual pilgrimage in view of the threat of the third wave of Covid 19.

''We did not learn any lesson from the first wave as a result of which the second wave hit the country. Many lives were lost. The government should not allow pilgrims from other places to enter the state (Uttarakhand),'' Khanna had said in his letter.

Thousands of 'kawadiyas' (devotees) visit Haridwar in Uttarakhand to fill their pitchers with Ganga waters and then carry them to offer to the temples of Lord Shiva.

Devotees, carrying the earthen pitchers, walk on foot for miles to offer them at Shiva temples.