Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on 17 July performed a traditional foot-washing ceremony for Kanwariya pilgrims at Ganga Ghat near the Om Bridge in Haridwar. The ritual took place during the ongoing Kanwar Yatra, an annual Sawan-month pilgrimage in which devotees collect water from the Ganges to offer at Shiva temples. After greeting the devotees, Dhami participated in a bhajan sandhya (evening hymn session) on the riverbank. The Chief Minister said the state government had made arrangements for crowd management, medical aid and sanitation to accommodate the influx of pilgrims, who are expected to traverse Uttarakhand’s highways in large numbers throughout the month-long festival.