With an intention to get first hand experience of Char Dham Yatra preparations, Chief Secretary Subhash Kumar inspected Rishikesh, which is known as entry point of Char Dham Yatra, on Sunday.
He himself checked public toilets, drinking water points, waiting room, Yatra receipts, Green Cards and conducted a physical check which revealed that taps were not functional in public toilets so he immediately suspended Gambhir Singh Kaintura, Tourism officer in-charge posted in Rishikesh, with immediate effect.
He expressed disappointment when he found that six out of 63 taps were not connected to the water pipeline. Seeing this anomaly he instructed Dehradun DM BVRC Purushottam, who was present during chief secretary's visit, to get these taps functional on priority basis.
During inspection of tourism office, which issues Yatra receipt, he found 397 pilgrims were issued the receipt on May 10 while 558 were issued on May 11 and 560 were issued on May 12.
later he inspected the public toilets and checked their condition, water supply and door arrangements.
Finding the door of one toilet non functional, he instructed the official concerned to get it repaired. He also instructed Sulabh International, authorised to maintain cleanliness on the Yatra route, and Rishikesh municipality to deploy sanitation employees in shifts so that pilgrims would get clean toilets all the time.
The Chief Secretary also inspected the RTO office, which issues green card for vehicles. To avoid inconvenience to the pilgrims he instructed officials to make sure that RTO, Police and other checking agency should check vehicle at one place. Before issuing green card there is a norm to check fitness of the vehicle as well. In view of hilly terrain there is a need to check vehicle length, width, quality of tyre and driver's ability as well. He also instructed the officials to raise sign boards carrying information about the facility available, destination and distance as well.
later he cross-checked about the facility available with pilgrims. During interaction a Gujarati pilgrim, who was undertaking the Char Dham Yatra sixth time, appreciated the arrangement. Another pilgrim SP Sharma, who came from Noida, UP, also praised the available arrangement.
Others including Rishikesh Municipality chairman Deep Sharma and Tehri CDO Savin Bansal were present there.