The Uttar Pradesh government has said a negative RT-PCR test could be made mandatory for the participants of the ‘Kanwar Yatra’ from other States. This comes soon after the Uttarakhand chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) submitted a letter to Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), demanding the cancellation of the ‘yatra’ in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
U.P. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath held a meeting to review the COVID-19 situation on Tuesday. According to an official statement, he said that keeping in mind experts’ assessments of the future trajectory of the infection, the ‘Kanwar Sanghs’ should be requested to keep the participation in the ‘yatra’ to the minimum number of people.
The traditional ‘yatra’ would be possible with COVID-19 protocols, he said, adding that necessary guidelines should be issued in coordination with Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttarakhand. “For those coming from other States, a decision should be taken after discussions on whether a negative RT-PCR test report can be made mandatory,” the statement quoted him as saying.
The State had decided to allow the ‘yatra’ from July 25.
State IMA’s call
However, the IMA unit of Uttarakhand — the destination State of the pilgrims — has urged that the ‘yatra’ be disallowed “in order to control the eruption of the third wave of the pandemic”.
In a letter sent to the PMO and Mr. Dhami, it said that lessons should be learnt from previous failures. “After the first wave, we became off guard and could not follow the guidelines of the central government delineated for this pandemic which was a gross negligence on our part and consequently lost several of our kin in the menace of the second wave of the Covid pandemic,” said the letter, sent by IMA State secretary Ajay Khanna.
“Learning from our previous failure we should not allow the devotees to enter the boundaries of our state and keep the state safe from the third wave of Covid,” stated Dr. Khanna. He noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also expressed concern at carelessness in following COVID-19 protocols.
Although Uttarakhand is yet to announce its official decision, Mr. Dhami has said that God would not like it if people lost their lives due to the ‘yatra’.
