The Kedarnath Yatra, which was halted for two hours, i.e 7 am to 9 am, due to rain and snowfall, resumed by 9 am on Saturday. This was disclosed by Rudraprayag District Magistrate Dr Raghav langer while talking to The Pioneer.
Expressing regret over the spread of misinformation, Dr langer said that the Yatra was halted between May 11-15 only and thereafter, the Yatra has continued. "Everyday, we allow pilgrims for Kedarnath from Sonprayag by 5 am after checking weather department's alert," he said.
"As the weather was not clear on Saturday morning and personnel deployed between Gaurikund to Kedarnath informed that there had been landslides due to rain in few stretches, we stopped pilgrims at Sonprayag between 7 am to 9 am. later, we allowed 450 pilgrims to continue their Yatra from Sonprayag as the weather improved by 9 am," he said.
"As you know that debris are stuck in large amounts in slopes; so whenever rain happens, it starts sliding down. To ensure hassle free Yatra, we have deployed 431 personnel,
including civil, police and SDRF, between Sonprayag to Kedarnath; so we get information from all sources from time to time. As we get information about any landslide or blocked route or poor weather, we immediately stop pilgrims at the entry point. Meanwhile, our people get active to clear the debris, which blocks routes, and they clear it on priority basis."
"As far as local participation is concerned, currently, we are providing all kinds of basic amenities, including lodging and food to the pilgrims between Sonprayag to Kedarnath, because no private entrepreneur has dared to open their outlet to tough geographical condition." Meanwhile, the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN) is running community kitchen and providing food to the
pilgrims free of cost. “Even we are providing ferry service between Sonprayag to Gaurikund to the pilgrims free of cost.” “Besides it, the GMVN has also been running few refreshment points, where sticks, umbrella, shoes, slippers, tea, snacks and water bottles are being sold at MRP. Every 100 meters, water stand posts have been made available for the pilgrims,” the DM added.
"Now we are also busy in motivating locals to start their business and probably, we would outsource all the facilities to the locals in the coming days." The DM further said that as people have witnessed devastation due to natural disaster in 2013, "so if anything happens for few moments, they start presuming things are like last year." He appealed to the people, including pilgrims, not to believe in such wrong information.