3 Uttarakhand shrines to reopen by Oct

Uttarakhand chief minister Vijay Bahuguna has said that three of the four shrines in the Char Dham yatra – Badrinath, Yamnotri and Gangotri – would be made accessible to devotees by September-end. Only Kedarnath would remain inaccessible as it was ravaged badly by the calamity that struck the state on June 15-16.

But those who manage the various shrine committees are sceptical. They point out that the rains till the end of August will make it extremely difficult to rebuild the roads. “The roads are in very bad shape. Janki Chatti — that is en route to Yamnotri — is cut off. Moreover, the government machinery is very slow,” said Khilanand Uniyal, secretary of the Yamnotri Temple Committee.

Ganesh Godiyal, chairman of the Badrinath–Kedarnath Temple Committee, too, is sceptical. “Officials have said they will make the roads motorable for small vehicles like cars. But lakhs of pilgrims travel to the shrines by bus,” he said.

BJP team meets PM, wants Prez Rule
New Delhi: A team of BJP leaders from Uttarakhand led by former chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and demanded imposition of President’s Rule in the flood-ravaged state on the grounds that the Congress government there had failed to deal effectively with the calamity and its aftermath.