With entrepreneurs engaged in hospitality business, who got their business infrastructure washed away in the Himalayan Tsunami last year, in the Kedarnath valley, failing to resume their business activities even after nearly one year, the State Government’s assurances to its citizens to ensure timely return of normalcy to the trouble torn area, stand exposed.
Therefore, the private sector hospitality industry being unable to gather necessary courage to restart their trade in the aforesaid valley. The Kedarnath valley area does have basic infrastructure facility developed by the State Government itself to accommodate only 300 devotees at a time.
“Whereas about 10,000 devotees used to visit the Kedartnath dham per day till last year, presently, we are allowing only about 500 devotees at a time to visit the Kedarnath Dham, keeping in view the limited accommodation facility we have in the Kedarnath valley region,” said AK Dwivedi, Joint Director, Tourism Development Council, Uttarakhand, while talking to The Pioneer.
“We presently have necessary facility to accommodate only 300 pilgrims at a time in the Kedarnath dham area. That is why we have restricted the flow of pilgrims to the said shrines, allowing only a limited number of pilgrims at a time, i.e. about 500,” added the Joint Director, TDC, Uttarakhand.
Therefore, we could allow more pilgrims to visit the Kedaranth shrines only when the basic infrastructure situation improves in due course of time ahead, added Dwivedi.
It is worth mentioning here that amid ruins of basic infrastructure that resulted in a huge and irreparable human tragedy in the heights of the Kedarnath valley last year, enthusiasm and faith in ordinary citizens towards the lord Kedarnath and other dhams of Uttarakhand have not diminished. But the State Government has not been able to rekindle a sense of trust among the businessmen engaged in tourism sector who play a critical role in taking care of the pilgrims during their Himalayan sojourn even after passing of such a long period.
It may be recalled that Chief Minister Harish Rawat started his inning as the head of the Uttarakhand Government from the same Kedar Valley about three months ago after he was sworn in as Chief Minister of Uttrarakhand only to reassure the citizens of the Himalayan state to put the normal life on track soon.
Subsequently, the State Government made popular announcements in a mass scale only to accelerate the pace of developmental and repair works and keeping in view the ongoing general election process and rebuilding of basic infrastructure on the Char Dham and other areas. But much has not yet been changed, as the people particularly devotees who wish to go to the Char Dham pilgrimage here allegedly said.
In a recently held Cabinet meeting, the State Government has announced a number of measures to improve the condition of basic infrastructure in the Char Dham area. Yet one can only guess whether all the pilgrims become able to complete their Chardham pilgrimage or not as the monsoon period is not very far away.