UP government to organise free Tirupati, Rameshwaram pilgrimage

Lucknow, Sep 15: Buoyed by the response to its 'Samajwadi Shravan Yatra', facilitating senior citizens to undertake free pilgrimage, the Uttar Pradesh government will organise the next phase of the yatra to Tirupati and Rameshwaram later this year.

"On the directives of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Samajwadi Shravan Yatra to Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh and Rameshwram in Tamil Nadu has been planned for native senior citizens of the state," Principal Secretary of Religious Endowment Navneet Sehgal said in a press release.

The earlier two pilgrimages had been conducted to Haridwar and Rishikesh in Uttarakhand and Ajmer Sharif and Pushkar in Rajastan. "This yatra will be conducted through IRCTC," Sehgal said, adding, "Tentative dates of the pilgrimage are November 26 to December 4 this year."

The pilgrims will be taken for pilgrimage by a special train from Lucknow with the UPSRTC buses facilitating their to and fro journey from their native places, he said.

Those willing to undertake the yatra can apply both on-line and off-line and they would be selected on the basis of their seniority as per their date of birth and also on first come first serve basis, the Principal Secretary said.

The Samajwadi Shravan Yatra launched by the state government this year has drawn inspiration from the devotion of a mythological character Shravan Kumar, who carried his blind parents on his shoulders for a pilgrimage.

PTI