To comply with the standard operating procedures (SOP) issued by the Centre for the upcoming Haridwar Mahakumbh, the state government is mulling to notify the Mahakumbh period from April 10-27.
The proposal was discussed during the state cabinet meeting led by chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Tuesday in Dehradun. If approved, the Mahakumbh Mela would be officially organised for only 18 days against the present proposed period of about two months from February 27-April 30 comprising six Shahi Snaans or auspicious baths during the mega-event. The government is expecting about eight lakh people on normal days while ten lakh on the auspicious baths.
The move has come after the Centre's SOP on the Mahakumbh few weeks ago in which it urged the state to shorten its period citing the ongoing pandemic.
A senior government official privy to the matter, on condition of anonymity, said, "The government is serious on the proposal as it has to adhere to the Centre's SOP which includes measures like carrying mandatory negative Covid-19 RT-PCR test report with a validity of 72 hours along with a medical certificate from a competent health authority for all the devotees coming to attend the event."
"However, if implemented, officially the Mahakumbh would be from April 10-27, but nobody would be stopped from coming to the Mahakumbh from February 27 from which it would start based on the religious calendar, but in adherence to all the Covid-19 precautions," said the officer.
He also informed that there were several important measures discussed under the proposal to ensure the health safety of the devotees in the Mahakumbh.
"Under that, the state chief secretary (CS) had written to the Railway Board in Delhi a few days ago, requesting it not to run any special trains for Haridwar on the two Shahi Snaans on April 13 and 14 and also one day before them. However, the request was made to run enough outbound trains on those dates for easy exit of devotees. This is to curb a large number of people coming to the event on those two occasions," he said.
"Apart from this, the CS had also written to the other states to not run special buses to carry devotees from their states to Haridwar during Mahakumbh while ensuring that they carry the mandatory negative Covid-19 RT-PCR test report and medical certificate for attending Mahakumbh," he said.
State urban development minister and government spokesperson Madan Kaushik, however, didn't reveal many details about the discussion on the SOP for the Mahakumbh but said, "The cabinet discussed many significant proposed measures to ensure that it's organised in compliance to the Centre's SOP to ensure health safety of all amid pandemic."
"The state government would finalise the SOP for Haridwar Mahakumbh after the CM speaks to the Akhada Parishad on the measures being discussed. As the authorised person from the government for it, the SOP will be then issued by him after the talks," said Kaushik.
The Centre had issued the SOP few weeks ago after the state government approached it for the same on the order of Uttarakhand High Court while hearing a PIL on conducting Mahakumbh amid Covid-19 pandemic.
Under the SOP, the Centre had asked the state government to make it mandatory for all the devotees to carry an RT-PCR negative test report of Covid-19 with a 72 hours validity. It also asked all the devotees to get a medical report from a competent medical authority near their house on the lines of Amaranth Yatra before coming to attend the mega-event in Haridwar. It has asked the state government to ensure that the aforementioned reports are checked by the Mela authorities and not allow anyone to attend the event without them.
Similarly, it had also asked the state government to discourage devotees aged above 65 years, pregnant women and children less than 10 years from attending the event. To ensure safety of the health and frontline workers to be deployed in the Mahakumbh, it asked the state to deploy only the vaccinated ones.
Budget session to be held from March 1-10 in Gairsain
Earlier while addressing the media persons on the other decisions taken in the cabinet meeting, Kaushik informed that the upcoming budget session of state assembly would be held from March 1-10 in the state summer capital of Gairsain in Chamoli district.
"The budget would be tabled in the House on March 4 followed by a debate on it on March 5. There would be no House proceedings on March 6 and 7 after which it would resume from March 8," said Kaushik.
Among the other decisions taken he informed that "the cabinet while approving the structure for Jal Jivan Mission to provide piped water connection to households, 97 positions have been approved by the government."
(With inputs from agencies)