With an intention to ensure smooth conduct of Kanwar Mela, the State Home Department is seeking five companies of central police force from Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). A letter was written to joint secretary Home by the State Home department on Tuesday.
The State Government is going to restrict Kanwarias, who come to carry water of holy Ganga river in the month of Shravan and offer to their nearby lord Shiva temple, movement upto Rishikesh at any cost. For this, they have sought five companies of central police force from the Ministry of Home Affairs. Sources said that Kanwarias prefer to visit the famous Neelkanth Temple, which falls under landslide zone; so there is a chance of clash between police and Kanwarias. The Uttarakhand Government, which is already working hard to cope up with the situation since the cloudburst on June 16-17 in three rivers including Mandakini in Kedarnath, Alaknanda in Badrinath and Bhagirathi in Gangotri, does not want any more disaster; so they have decided to implement law and order strictly.
The State Government has categorically mentioned that in 2012, the Union Government had sent two companies of Rapid Action Force (RAF) and “we managed to control the crowd with the help of State police. This year, Uttarakhand Police has been pressed into relief and rescue operation in disaster-affected areas and Ramdan month is also going on; so there is a chance of clash between communities.”
“As you know that most of the Kanwar route crosses through Muslim-dominated areas of Haridwar district and Kanwarias always move in a group and they don’t want any kind of interruption during the Yatra. As you know that Muslim pious month has begun since July 11 and will continue till August 10. Earlier, we used to deploy large number of force to tackle the crowd across the route, but this year, we have deployed large number of police in disaster-affected areas.”