UP cancels Kanwar Yatra after SC prod

Lucknow, July 17

The annual Kanwar Yatra in Uttar Pradesh has been cancelled, a senior government official said tonight. The development comes a day after the Supreme Court said it could not allow the UP Government “to hold 100 per cent physical Kanwar Yatra in view of Covid,” stressing all sentiments, including religious, were subservient to right to life.

“The yatra has been cancelled by the Kanwar Sanghs on an appeal issued by the state government,” Additional Chief Secretary (Informatio) Navneet Sehgal. The yatra was scheduled to start on July 25.

The Uttarakhand Government has already called off the yatra, citing fears of a possible third wave of the pandemic. The yatra that goes on till the first week of August sees thousands of Shiva devotees called ‘kanwariyas’ travelling mostly on foot from neighbouring states, including UP, Haryana and Delhi, to collect water from the Ganges in Haridwar.

The Centre had told the top court that state governments must not permit any kind of Kanwar Yatra because of the pandemic and arrangements should be made to bring water from the Ganges through tankers at designated places. Uttar Pradesh had said it was going ahead with a “symbolic” version.

On Friday, the Supreme Court, taking suo motu cognisance of the matter, had asked Uttar Pradesh to inform by July 19 whether it would reconsider its decision to hold a “symbolic” yatra. PTI