Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Tuesday announced suspension of the annual Kawad Yatra, taking into consideration the possibility of the Delta Plus variant triggering the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The decision was taken at a meeting convened by Dhami with senior officers of the Uttarakhand Government and health experts in Dehradun.
“We have decided to suspend the upcoming Kawad Yatra,” Dhami told reporters in Dehradun.
“We do not wish to make Haridwar the centre of Covid-19 pandemic. Protecting people's lives is of paramount importance to us,” the young chief minister said.
“We appeal to everyone that saving people's lives is more important. Even gods will not like it if people lose their lives,” Dhami said when asked about Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announcing that the yatra would begin from July 26.
The decision came after Dhami discussed the Kawad Yatra issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the national capital over the weekend.
Health experts and the Indian Medical Association had also written to the chief minister asking him to not allow the yatra in the interest of the people of the state and the country.
Earlier in the day, Dhami had said that though Kawad Yatra is part of Sanatan culture, saving lives in the time of the pandemic was paramount.
The yatra begins with the onset of the month of Shravan and goes on for a fortnight when devotees from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh walk to Haridwar to collect water from river Ganga and offer it at Shiva temples in their areas.
(Published 13 July 2021, 13:52 IST)
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