The Uttarakhand government had issued a fresh set of standard operating procedures on Wednesday for the Char Dham Yatra 2021 giving relief to the pilgrims. In the fresh set of SOPs, it has been mandated that the devotees will mandatorily require to generate an e-pass by registering them for ‘Darshan’.
Along with the mandatory e-pass, the devotees will require to either have both the doses of the COVID-19 vaccine or to carry a negative RT-PCR COVID-19 test report not older than 72 hours.
While issuing the standard operating procedures (SOPs) to arrest the spread of COVID-19, the Uttarakhand government said that the devotees will have to submit negative RT-PCR/ vaccination reports (not older than 72 hours) if they wish to visit the Char Dham.
As per the guidelines (Char Dham Yatra 2021), the devotees will have to wear masks while taking on the pilgrimage.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice R S Chauhan and Justice Alok Kumar Verma on October 5 removed the daily limit on the number of devotees visiting the temples of Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri, and Yamunotri. As per the earlier order, the HC had allowed around 1000 devotees to visit Badrinath every day, while 800 were permitted to visit Kedarnath, 600 Gangotri, and 400 Yamnotri.
Objecting to the High Court’s order the state government had requested the court to expand the daily limit on the number of visitors. Thus, the state government had filed a petition with the High Court, demanding that it should change its previous judgment to allow more devotees to visit the Temple sites. The application further said that all guidelines established by the court in the earlier judgment are being observed. The Uttarakhand administration told the court that in the four dhams, all relevant measures have been taken.
However, the state government filed an affidavit in the High Court, requesting it to amend its earlier order to increase the number of pilgrims visiting the Himalayan shrines.
It was also stated in the application that all guidelines laid down by the court in the previous order are being followed.
The government told the court that all necessary arrangements have been made available in the four dhams.
