Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, June 27: Undeterred by bad weather conditions and recent Uttarakhand tragedy, over 12,000 pilgrims will perform darshan at holy cave of Swami Amarnath Ji situated at an altitude of 14,000 feet in deep Himalayas in South Kashmir district of Anantnag on the first day of darshan tomorrow.
According to sources, over 5,000 pilgrims have reached base camps of Nunwan- Pahalgam by late this evening while 6,000 to 7,000 pilgrims from different parts of country are camping at Base Camp of Baltal in Ganderbal.
All these pilgrims are set to leave for holy cave from both the base camps early tomorrow morning for their onwards sojourn.
The first batch of 3,157 pilgrims left Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas for the holy cave under tight security measures this morning.
The yatris were flagged off by Minister of Tourism, Ghulam Ahmed Mir who was accompanied by MLA Jammu East, Ashok Khajuria, Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Pardeep Gupta, IGP Jammu, Rajesh Kumar, IG CRPF, Kuldeep Dhar, DIG Jammu-Kathua Range, Shakeel Ahmed Beig, Director Tourism, Soujanya Sharma, Deputy Commissioner Jammu and other senior civil and police officers on the occasion.
To keep the tradition alive and as a good omen the Minister broke the Nariyal (Coconut) while the Vedic hymns were recited by Dogra Pujari Shastri Sangh led by Ram Paul Shastri.
The first batch of 3,157 yatris comprised of 2466 male, 563 female, 38 children and 90 Sadhus. They left in a cavalcade of 96 vehicles including 75 buses and 21 LMVs.
As the first bus left the Yatri Niwas “Bum Bum Bole” and “Jaikara Veer Bajrangee” chanted by enthusiastic yatris rented the air.
Undeterred and unfazed by vagaries of weather and recent Uttarakhand tragedy, the yatris were in high spirits, dancing and singing bhajans in praise of Lord Shiva.
Anil Kumar, a BCA student from Amballa, Haryana, who left for holy cave along with four member group from his city said that they don’t feel any threat from any thing-weather, natural calamities or the terrorists. “We have surrendered ourselves to “Bhole Baba”, who is our savior so why to be afraid of any thing”, he added.
“We will perform darshan in the holy cave and pray God for the peaceful and prosperous yatra of pilgrims visiting the holy cave this year and in future”, said Rama Devi, a pilgrim from Ujjain, MP, who was accompanying a group of 50 pilgrims from the city.
She said “instead of suspending yatra due to bad weather conditions or early Monsoon arrival which created havoc in Kedar Ghati we should go for the pilgrimage of holy cave and pray Lord Shiva to shower His blessings on mankind”, .
Talking to reporters after flagging off the yatra, G A Mir said fool proof arrangements for yatris’ security have been made right from Lakhanpur to holy cave. The deployment of security forces is in place and this year extra cautions have been taken to ensure smooth and hassle free yatra, he added.
He said there was one time that no security was needed for Amarnath pilgrims and this yatra was symbol of secular traditions in entire country as Muslims had played big role in ensuring smooth yatra over the years by rendering their services to the yatris. In this regard he referred to the Malik’s of Batakote Pahalgam who get the share from the offerings made at holy cave.
He said after the formation of Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) headed by Governor N N Vohra the arrangements have been made better and extra steps are being taken for ensuring smooth and hassle free yatra.
Allaying fears of trouble to yatris in the wake of Uttarakhand tragedy, Mr Mir said in the two month long yatra all Government departments are involved in arrangements and DCs of Anantnag and Ganderbal in Kashmir Valley are appointed as yatri officers.
He said proper care has been taken for providing shelter to yatris enroute. At Baltal and Pahalgam all arrangements are in place. The arrangements for boarding and lodging of yatris have been made at Srinagar also while at Jammu about 5000 pilgrims can be accommodated at Yatri Niwas, he added.
Meanwhile, elaborate security arrangements were made at Yatri Niwas as the entire area was sanitized by CRPF and J&K Police. The road from Bhagwati Nagar to Gole Gujral was blocked for vehicular traffic in the morning and CRPF personnel had laid Nakas at various places on the road and no vehicle was allowed to move from the road till yatra left for holy cave. The CRPF had also erected barricades on the road at a number of places.
As per the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) only 15,000 yatris will be allowed to move towards the Amarnath cave shrine everyday — 7,500 from Pahalgam and an equal number from Baltal.
Keeping in view the huge influx of unregistered devotees visiting the State, civil administration has set-up spot registration counters at different places.
“However, the spot-registration will be subject to the availability, as only 15,000 yatris will be allowed for the pilgrimage every day,” a tourism official informed.
Reports coming from Srinagar said that about 5000 yatris, including a good number of sadhus, have reached Manigam Baltal and Nunwan Pahalgam base camps to undertake the pilgrimage to the Holy Amarnath cave shrine commencing from tomorrow.
Trained personnel from National Disaster Rescue Force (NDRF), State Disaster Rescue Force (SDRF) and other agencies have been deployed on both shortest Baltal and traditional Pahalgam tracks.
All precautionary measures have been taken, keeping in view the recent tragedy during Chardham pilgrimage in Uttarakhand.
A Met Department spokesman said here this afternoon that there could be moderate to rather heavy rains or thundershowers at several place in Jammu and Kashmir divisions during the next 24 hours.
He said there would be no large change during the subsequent four days.
Sources said besides NDRF and SDRF, trained personnel from ITBP and State personnel have been deployed on both routes to assist the yatris, undertaking the pilgrimage to the shrine, situated at 3952 metres.
There had been rains on both the tracks for the past 24 hours.
They said about 2,500 yatris are at Manigam Baltal camp while equal number are at Nunwan Pahalgam, ready to undertake the journey on foot tomorrow morning.
They will be joined by pilgrims, who left Jammu this morning for Baltal and Nunwan Pahalgam.
Owing to the hilly and difficult terrain, NDRF and SDRF, besides state police, have already been deployed at all places which are being considered tough, including Pisso Top (3377 mtrs), Sheshnag (3352 mtrs) Poshpathri (4114 mtrs), Mahagunas (4276 mtrs) and Panjtarni (3656 mtrs).
This time, the SASB has introduced ‘Darshan Parchee’ to yatris to check repeated darshan by yatris, causing unnecessary rush near the cave shrine.
Now yatris, with valid yatra permit, will be provided the Darshan parchee before starting their journey from base camp which will be collected from him or her near the shrine. The slip will be valid for only one Darshan of the Shivlingam.
However, under no circumstances any unregistered yatri will be allowed to proceed beyond gates set up on both routes before the start of the foot journey, CEO, SASB Naveen Choudhary said.
He said that a total of 12,717 yatris secured registration for the first day of yatra for both Baltal and Pahalgam tracks. Out of this 6150 pilgrims were registered for Pahalgam track and 6567 for Baltal track.
He said the Governor, N N Vohra who is also chairman of the SASB convened a final meeting to review the yatra arrangements and he also discussed the yatra issue of this year with Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah in the wake of the Uttarakhand tragedy to reiterate the importance of the district administration strictly ensuing against any unregistered pilgrim being allowed to undertake the yatra.
The Governor has also directed the CEO to obtain final reports from all camp directors to reconfirm that the arrangements put in place are strictly as per the decisions taken, Mr Choudhary said.
The Divisional Commissioner Kashmir and IGP Kashmir have been asked to ensure strict enforcement at the access control gates located at Chandanwari and Domel.
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