PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/ Haridwar
With the Kanwad Yatra underway, contrasting pictures have emerged from Haridwar. On the one hand, flower petals were showered on the pilgrims on the direction of the chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and the CM himself washed their feet in a show of reverence for the devotees of Lord Shiva, while on the other, the Kanwariyas are being forced to walk on a rough path, a few steps away from Har Ki Pauri.
The condition of the stretch from the Dhanush bridge at Har Ki Pauri to the control room is really bad. “This stretch is broken at many places and so it has turned into rocky trail,” said a pilgrim, adding that they were finding it extremely difficult to walk on this hard path barefoot while carrying Ganga water.
The locals wonder whether the district administration is aware of this fact or not. “Things are indeed ironical. Reverence is shown to the devotees, while the administration has left the path, trodden by millions of devotees, unrepaired and stony. The government and the district administration owe an answer to the devotees. Why such a showy welcome while things on the road are so bad?” asked a local.
Echoing the view, others said that the basic works should have been done before the start of the fair to spare the devotees the hardships of striding along a broken rocky trail.
