New Delhi: Even as Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal flagged off the first train to Ayodhya under the Delhi government's free pilgrimage scheme amid singing, dancing and chants of "Jai Shree Ram" outside te Safdarjung Railway Station here, he went on to allege that the Centre prevented his government from holding an event to mark the occasion.
The train departed from Safdarjung Railway Station carrying a batch of over 1,000 passengers, who under the Mukhya Mantri Tirth Yatra Yojana, were going to Ayodhya. First, the pilgrims were brought to the railway station by buses, where a program was organised by the government to send off the pilgrims. Kejriwal was accompanied by the State's Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot and MLA Atishi.
The Safdarjung Railway Station echoed with chants of 'Humara Shravan Kumar — Arvind Kejriwal', when the CM reached to flag off the train full of pilgrims. He further said that his government had organised a program at the station to send off the pilgrims but that the Central government refused permission for it.
"If someone gets a chance to go on pilgrimage in old age, then their happiness knows no bounds. Everyone is going for Ayodhya Darshan today. Due to Corona, the process of sending people on pilgrimage under our scheme had stopped, now that Corona has reduced a bit we have restarted the pilgrimage," the CM said.
Under the scheme, the government will be sending trains to other pilgrimage sites like Rameshwaram, Puri, Haridwar, Rishikesh, and Ajmer Sharif. The CM spoke to the pilgrims sitting in every coach and wished them well and also directed the concerned officers going on the pilgrimage with the elderly to take full care of the facilities.
Under the Yojana, the elderly people will go on pilgrimage to Kartarpur Sahib and Velankanni in January with 15 pilgrimage sites available to pilgrims to choose from. Passengers going from Delhi to Velankanni pilgrimage site will be provided a seat in an AC three-tier train by the government — the first one departing on January 7 next year. At the same time, a plan has been made to send Delhi pilgrims to Kartarpur Sahib by deluxe AC buses — the first of which is scheduled to leave on January 5.
During the pandemic 15,000 people had applied for pilgrimage, but due to the ban on travel, the people could not take advantage of the scheme.
The government will send SMS to the applicants on their registered mobile numbers and if they are willing to visit Ayodhya, they will have to
modify their applications on the e-district portal to opt for the Delhi-Ayodhya-Delhi route along with uploading the certificate of both the doses of vaccination.
The government will send a team of doctors and paramedical staff along with passengers in all AC trains and AC buses during the journey under the scheme.