IMA’s Amit Khanna asks Pushkar Dhami to cancel the Kanwar Yatra by writing a letter.

The Indian Medical Association’s Uttarakhand chapter has written to Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami requesting him to cancel the Kanwar Yatra this year for public safety in view of a possible third wave of COVID-19.

Drawing the Chief minister’s attention to the warnings of medical experts about a third wave of the pandemic in a letter, the IMA’s state secretary Amit Khanna asked him to not allow the proposed Kanwar Yatra to go ahead.

The fortnight-long yatra that begins with the onset of the month of Shravan around July 25 and goes on till the first week of August sees crores of Kanwariyas from neighbouring states like Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Delhi and Himachal Pradesh gathering in Haridwar to collect the holy waters of the Ganga.

The yatra had been cancelled last year too due to the first wave of COVID-19.

“We request you to disallow the proposed Kanwar Yatra in July-August, 2021, as the third wave of Covid pandemic is ready to knock on the doors of this country according to several specialists,” Mr Khanna said on behalf of the IMA in the letter.