Harish Rawat sets June 15 as deadline for Nanda Devi Raj Jaat

Pacing up preparations for the Nanda Devi Raj Jaat yatra also called the Himalayan Kumbh,  Chief Minister Harish Rawat has set a deadline of June 15 for the agencies concerned to wind up all preparations related to the high-altitude pilgrimage held every twelve years through the picturesque hills of Uttarakhand.

At a high-level meeting to review preparations for the yatra, the Chief Minister said all roads on the pilgrimage route should be repaired by June 15 to ensure a safe and trouble-free journey to devotees, an official release said in Dehradun on Thursday.

If work on repair and reconstruction of roads is being delayed by the National Highways Authority of India or the Border Roads Organisation, the PWD can take up the task and accomplish it by the mid-June deadline, Rawat said, adding smooth and safe conduct of the pilgrimage is the state goverenment's priority.

An eleven-member committee headed by Deputy Speaker of the state Assembly Anusuya Prasad Maikhuri will soon be constituted to monitor preparations for the yatra, he said. It is for the first time that the yatra is being conducted after the creation of Uttarakhand.

Originally scheduled to be held in 2012, it was deferred for a year due to Malemas (inauspicious phase) and then postponed again last year in the wake of the June calamity.

Conducted through the difficult hilly terrain of Chamoli, Pithoragarh and Almora districts the pilgrimage which proceeds in the form of a procession from Nauti village symbolises Lord Shiva's consort Nanda Devi's departure from her ancestral home.