Uttarakhand: Encroachment will be removed from outside the temples of Uttarakhand, the department came into action after the Mansa Devi incident

Chief Secretary Anand Bardhan held a meeting with officials in the Secretariat today regarding the safety of devotees in the religious places of Uttarakhand. In the meeting, CS directed to remove encroachment from outside the temples of Uttarakhand.

Arrangements should be made to control the crowd of devotees
CS Bardhan said in the meeting that all such religious places in the state should be marked to control incidents like stampede among devotees at Mansa Devi in Haridwar. CS said that part-time and long-term arrangements should be ensured in places where there is a possibility of stampede due to excessive crowd of devotees on important days.

Roads to religious places should be made encroachment free: CS
CS said that the routes to religious places should be widened by making them encroachment free. Continuous campaigns should be run to remove encroachment from the roads. He said that technology should also be used for crowd management in religious places. CS said that in case of excessive crowd in religious places, places should be prepared to stop devotees on the roads.

Route and circulation plan should be prepared for religious places

Chief Secretary Anand Bardhan said that route and circulation plan should be prepared for every religious place, so that there is no sudden crowd in religious places. Giving priority to the more important temples, he said that in the first phase, Mansa Devi, Chandi Devi, Neelkanth, Kainchi Dham and Purnagiri temple should be analyzed through experts.

Instructions given to prepare SOP after analyzing temples

CS said that arrangements should be made to provide all kinds of assistance to the team of experts to the administration and stakeholders of religious places. He said that this team of experts will analyze the temple area and test the civil engineering and technical aspects for crowd management, evacuation plan and bottle neck area and prepare a proper plan and proper SOP for the place of stay at various places.