Overview

• Meat and liquor shops along the Kanwar Yatra corridors in Uttar Pradesh have been closed or curtained, and Delhi and Uttarakhand administrations have issued matching bans to honor devotees’ faith.
• Starting on the night of July 10, authorities will enforce traffic diversions and one-way pilgrim lanes, bar heavy vehicles, install 1,543 CCTV cameras, run 60 special buses and open 43 medical camps.
• After conducting an aerial survey, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ordered zero tolerance on food defilement, mandated resting shelters, clean drinking water and adequate lighting along the route.
• Opposition leader Akhilesh Yadav criticized government emphasis on QR codes and name boards as superficial, while BJP MLA Tarvinder Singh Marwah formally requested a temporary national ban on meat and liquor shops along the pilgrimage paths.
• Authorities have increased surveillance following a spitting arrest in Muzaffarnagar and reports of “I Am Hindu” posters by Hindu Mahasabha activists in Bareilly that traders say stoke communal tensions.