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Chardham Highway
Four people were killed and nine others went missing on Monday as torrential rains pounded Uttarakhand, demolishing buildings and causing landslides which breached the national highways to Badrinath, Kedarnath and Gangotri shrines leading to the suspension of Chardham yatra for two days. Rudraprayag district disaster management officer Nandan Singh Rajwar said a landslide hit a camp at Lincholi on Kedarnath trek route damaging four shops in which one person from Nepal was killed and a trader went missing. The body of 26-year-old Kalu Bahadur has been found. Two bodies were also recovered from rain-fed streams near Shiva temple and Miranagar areas in Rishikesh. One of them has been identified as 35-year-old Dinesh Panwar, a resident of Amit Gram. The other body is being identified, DSP Sandeep Negi said. A body was recovered in Laxmanjhula area of Pauri district where five people went missing after a landslide, according to a bulletin by the state disaster control room. As many as
The Chardham Yatra was on Monday suspended for two days as torrential rains triggered landslides that breached the national highways to Badrinath, Kedarnath and Gangotri shrines, officials said. As heavy rains pounded the Himalayan state causing house collapses and landslides, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami held a meeting with senior officials to review the situation. The pilgrimage to Chardham -- Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath - was suspended for two days in view of the rains and landslides blocking major highways, officials said.
Local travel operators staged an indefinite dharna here on Tuesday demanding a ban on vehicles from outside the state operating on the Chardham Yatra route. The transport department is issuing green cards to vehicles from other states for operating on the Chardham Yatra route. It is harming the local travel operators, the protesters said. "The travel operators were very enthusiastic about the start of the Chardham Yatra. But they are now in a state of despair as vehicles from states like Haryana and Delhi have come to Haridwar to operate on the route," Haridwar's taxi union president Sanjay Sharma said. "They are being issued green cards by the Uttarakhand Transport Department which is not fair. It is harming local travel operators. We have raised the matter before authorities a number of times but no action has been taken," he said. He said the protest will continue until a ban is imposed on vehicles from outside the state operating on the Chardham route.