The ongoing Kanwar Yatra has been making traffic move at a snail’s pace in Dehradun and Haridwar for some days. However, the people are bearing with them with a smile as the pilgrimage is an important one pregnant with immense religious significance.
Things would continue till Tuesday when the Kanwar season would come to an end. Now, the season being at its peak, Kanwarias are thronging Haridwar in their thousands to collect water from holy Ganga to pour on the Shiva idols in their respective places.
Seeing the huge influx of swarming pilgrims, the administration has been dealing with them as leniently as possible. Otherwise, things might result in a fatal stampede-like scaenario, police said. Those driving cars in and around Haridwar are extra cautious so as to avoid any brawl with the Kanwarias.
Talking to The Pioneer, Uttam Sinha, who came from Delhi to collect holy water, said he was happy with the role of the police. “They are exercising utmost restraint while dealing with the Kanwarias. It is good as we take immense pain to come on the pilgrimage from far-away places. We do not, however, mind the pains as we believe that it would please our lord Shiva,” he said.
Talking to The Pioneer, a police, who was deployed en route to Har-ki-Pauri, said despite being asked to exercise zero tolerance regarding any nuisance being created by the pilgrims, they are exercising cent percent tolerance on the ground. “We are enforcing order on the crowd without ever losing our cool. Rather, we are keeping things under control by requesting them to cooperate with us. Things are running excellently sans any disorder thanks to the restraint we are exercising. Most of them are cooperating with us to keep order. Had we approached them by being ruthless things might have turned violent. Even the possibility of a stampede cropping up could not be ruled out if we apply force to control them,” the police officer said.
Even in Dehradun, police have been enforcing the laws in the same restrained ways. They are making things smooth for the Kanwarias riding on two-wheelers at Rispana taking the Sahranpur route. They are intervening to enforce traffic instructions in cases the pilgrims riding in groups defy the traffic rules. “They are moving without creating any problem for us. We are, on our part, are cooperating with them to let them pass smoothly,” one of the cops deployed to man the pilgrimage in Dehradun said.
An officer said they are on their toes as any untoward incident regarding the pilgrimage might reflect poorly on the State.
