Uttarakhand Still Mourning, Government Still Promising

BANGALORE: Last year, on 16^th June, several people died, lost their homes, livelihood and washed away by the swirling waters in Uttarakhand.  A mishap that caused due to a glacier melted right behind the Kedarnath. And, today, almost a year later, the passage of time has brought no solace.

Government tried its best to ensure more safety, lesser environmental damage and quick rescue of those trapped in the difficult landscape between the routes of the Char Dham Yatra. Locals of Kedarnath regret that nothing happened. Uttar Pradesh government officials said that around 1,150 people from the state had gone on the 'Char Dham Yatra' either had died or went missing. The Utter Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had announced an ex-gratia amount of 5.50 lakh to each person. The government officials are still working for modalities of payment of the ex gratia amount. 

Though the officials said that the CM has personally checked the process of giving out the ex-gratia amount, the system seems non-flexible. The death certificates that state government has received are still under the process of verification after one year and soon the schedule will be announced for the payment. Moreover, UP government has received only 850 death certificates and 300 more are yet to receive.

The tragedy continues to haunt the devout and it is not surprising that in the first 10 days of the Yatra, while 635,000 people had come last year, the number has barely touched 100,000 this year, an official said. The landslides and downpour on the Kedarnath-Badrinath route this year too stranded pilgrims who braved their fear and undertook the trek. The facilities at base camps are not reassuring enough, said a devotee from Kanpur who has completed a trip to Kedarnath, recently.

The Uttarakhand government last July said it was exploring the possibility of constructing a ropeway to the Kedarnath shrine in the coming future but not much headway has been made. The Indian Army had worked on a new route to the Kedarnath Shrine during the calamity and work was to be taken up "on a concrete basis" an official said, but nothing happened so far.

(With IANS inputs)