After chairing an emergency meeting with senior officials to discuss the situation, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that heli services on the Char Dham route will remain suspended for two days, as the weather is bad and the safety of the passengers is the government's top priority.
Rudraprayag District Disaster Management Officer Nandan Singh Rajwar told PTI that the accident took place above the forests of Gaurikund amid poor visibility due to bad weather.
Saina, who was accompanied by her father Harvir Singh, first offered prayers at Kedarnath on Sunday morning before she left for Badrinath.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered prayers at the famous Kedarnath temple in Uttarakhand's Rudraprayag district on Friday.
Having returned from a visit to the flood-hit areas in Uttarakhand, the state's former chief minister B C Khanduri tells Shishir Prashant that Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi's visit to the state in the light of restrictions made earlier by the home ministry on VIP movements in the affected areas, was a 'totally childish activity'
A high-level committee constituted by Dhami to look into the Devasthanam Board issue had submitted its recommendations to the chief minister in Rishikesh on Sunday.
Former Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat had to face the ire of teerth purohits in Kedarnath as he arrived at the Himalayan temple on Monday to offer prayers.
The notification issued by the Union Environment Ministry also exempts projects pertaining to the expansion of terminal buildings at airports (without an increase in the existing area of the airport) from seeking green nod.
The flood-hit religious destinations of Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunotri and Gangotri, where rescue operations are underway, would again record heavy rains from Thursday, the India Meteorological Department said on Friday. It also predicted "rather heavy showers" in Hemkund Sahib, another religious destination hit by flash floods and heavy rains, from Wednesday.
Resumption of 'Char Dham yatra' after a gap of two Covid-marred years is a welcome development for thousands of people whose livelihoods depend on it, but the death of 78 pilgrims on way to the Himalayan temples in less than a month is causing concern.
"There are clearly two sides. On one side, there is an organisation of patriots in the form of BJP and on the other side, tukde-tukde gang have come together under the leadership of the Congress. It is for the people of Karnataka to decide now whether they are with the patriots or those who support people who want to divide this country," he added.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi is trekking 18 kilometres up in the mountains of Uttarakhand to the Kedarnath Temple.
An FIR has been lodged in this regard by the temple committee officials.
'An earthquake of a slightly higher magnitude in the Western Himalayan region is going to be catastrophic -- not just because of the fragility of the region but because of how densely we have occupied it.'
'The entire public needs to be evacuated immediately. Any day, the entire town can collapse.'
A Rs 195 crore-package was announced by the government on Friday for reconstruction of the 'Char Dham' pilgrimage circuit, which was badly affected by the Uttarakhand rain disaster.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday conducted an aerial survey of rain-ravaged areas of Uttarakhand to asses the damage which the state government has pegged at Rs 7,000 crore.
'Half of China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, which are among the most populous countries in the world, are dependent on the rivers and glaciers of the Himalayas for sustenance.'
The sanctum-sanctorum of the Himalayan shrine has been spruced up under the supervision of a team of Kedarnath-Badrinath Committee and administrative officials.
Puja at the Kedarnath temple is set to resume on September 11. However, the yatra to the battered shrine wouldn't resume this season.
The minister said that the priority for him will be "rolling out all stuck highway projects that include many of the IL&FS projects within 100 days".
After a brief suspension due to bad weather early in the morning, the rescue operations in rain-hit Uttarakhand resumed on Sunday on a war footing to evacuate 22,000 pilgrims still stranded in high altitude areas amid a MeT department warning of light to moderate rains in the region from Monday.
Over 6,000 people are feared to have been killed in the devastating floods, cloudbursts and landslides in Uttarakhand in June, the government said on Tuesday.
'I'm a rascal, I'm going to play a paramahansa?!'
'For lakhs of people in the flood-afflicted state, battling against the elements is taking a huge toll. This is the time of the year that apples ripen, rice starts being harvested and preparations start in full swing to put aside some of the food stocks for the long winter months ahead. At this moment, though, people there believe if they can succeed in coming out of this calamity in one piece they will have won the war,' says Rashme Sehgal.
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