On Thursday, the Uttarakhand Government suspended Char Dham Yatra till further orders.
Uttarakhand CM Tirath Singh Rawat made the announcement regarding the suspension of Char Dham Yatra , who also added that the shrines will open as per their announced dates although no pilgrims will be allowed in the temples. “Only priests will be allowed to conduct puja and other rituals,” the CM added.
The Badrinath shrine is to open on May 18, Kedarnath on May 17 while the portals of Gangotri and Yamunotri will open on 15th May.
The announcement came a day after the Uttarakhand high court rebuke the state government for holding the Kumbh Mela despite the pandemic and becoming a ‘laughing stock’.
Ravinath Raman, CEO of the Devasthanam board which administers the shrines, said that the idea of the yatra taking place symbolically was also discussed and eventually, it was decided to suspend the yatra until the situation became better.
Uttarakhand had recorded the highest single-day spike of 6,054 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, taking the tally to 1,68,616, while 108 deaths pushed the toll to 2,417. There are 45,383 active COVID-19 cases in the state, while 1,17,221 have recovered
