A view of the Badrinath temple, one of the holy shrines of the Char Dham pilgrimage.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
With an aim to keep the mountains clean, Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Radha Raturi on Thursday instructed officials to ensure that pilgrims travelling on the Char Dham Yatra route carry trash bags in vehicles.
The Char Dham temples of Gangotri, Yamunotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath are situated over 3,000 metres above sea level and fall under an eco-sensitive zone.
During a review meeting, Ms. Raturi asked the officials and departments concerned to permit only those vehicles that have a dustbin or garbage bag in it. She has also directed the State transport department to coordinate with their counterparts in the neighbouring States and inform them of the new mandatory condition.
Transport Commissioners of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Chandigarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh had been informed through letters about the same, officials told the Chief Secretary.
The Char Dham Yatra, which started on May 10 this year, witnessed a footfall of over 31 lakh till July 25.
Ms. Raturi further directed the officials to issue challans and impose penalty on those found violating the rules.
Dashboard soon
The Chief Secretary has also instructed the Public Works Department (PWD) to compulsorily upload data pertaining to black spots on the yatra route, slippery zones, alternative routes, roads obstructed by debris, landslips or traffic jams as well as road accidents, on the Chardham dashboard, which is set to be launched soon.
Officials should regularly feed real-time data into the dashboard, which would become an effective medium for exchange of information and data sharing among all the departments related to Char Dham, she said.
