Friday, 14 July 2023 | Gajendra Singh Negi | Dehradun
Kanwad craze
With the obsession for the Kanwad Yatra in the Hindi hinterland bordering to frenzied levels in the last two decades, the tiny State of Uttarakhand is forced to suffer silently during the auspicious month of Shravan every year. An estimated five crore Kanwadiyas (which is more than four times the total population of Uttarakhand) would converge in Haridwar, Rishikesh, Neelkanth temple belt of the State during this period putting an unbearable burden on the resources and government machinery.
Apart from the Kanwad, these pilgrims carry high decibel sound systems and polluting vehicles with them and they become an unruly rampaging mob at the slightest of the provocation on their way and over the years they have become a bane to the local population and wildlife in the surrounding areas. The surge of the Kanwadiyas also throws the Open Defecation Free (ODF) status of the Himalayan State into wind during the Yatra as the holy Ganga gets polluted by the human excreta and other wastes during the Yatra.
The deep devotion and sentiments of the people of Uttarakhand – reflected in the showering of petals and washing of feet of Kandwadiyas by their chief minister- makes them suffer silently but it is high time when the government, civil society and religious leaders should put their heads together to find out a solution for this problem which has reached to colossal proportions.
Satirical setback
A government school teacher who always remains active on social media and in the politics of employee associations is giving a lesson on the meaning of satire on his facebook page after a departmental action was taken against him. A post in social media by the teacher in which he mentioned that the government order of leave always proves to be more efficient in stopping rains instead of the ‘Dhan Singh App’ left the officers of the department fuming as the person on whom he made a sarcastic comment happens to be the Minister heading the education department.
The minister caught the attention of everyone about two years ago when he purportedly claimed in a video which went viral that the state government is planning to use an App which will control the intensity of rains. The teacher used this rain app gag to take a dig at the government orders of leaves in school but it rubbed the Babus of the department in a wrong way and apart from withholding his salary, an inquiry has been set up against him. The findings of the inquiry on the satire would be eagerly awaited.
Green warriors
The employee associations became active when they realised that the festival of Harela which is celebrated on the first day of the month of Shravan in Uttarakhand got mentioned on July 16 in the government’s list of holidays. Their discomfiture can be understood since July 16 happens to be Sunday this year but when they were told that due to the phenomenon of Adhik Mas, the month of Shravan would start on July 17 this year, they forced the government to change the Harela holiday to Monday.
The decision of shifting the holiday to Monday would now enable the employees and their families to celebrate the festival worshiping Mother Nature in a big way as they will get sufficient time to plant as many saplings as they can on the two back to back holidays.
