Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 8: Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) was likely to start the process of registration of Amarnath pilgrims from March this year as aspirants for the yatra had to go through cumbersome process of registration this time in view of Compulsory Health Certificate (CHC) required to be furnished by the pilgrims.
The SASB today unveiled the CHC, which has been designed by top medical professionals of the country. Only those medical practitioners and Medical Institutes could issue the CHC, who were certified by their respective States and Union Territories (UTs) and whose names were available with the Shrine Board.
Official sources said the SASB authorities have decided to strictly implement the CHC with a view to minimize the death during 55 days long yatra, beginning June 28 as last year’s pilgrimage had taken the toll of more than 100 yatris, mainly due to lack of adequate health facilities on twin tracks of Pahalgam and Baltal and holy cave shrine of Shri Amarnath ji, located at a height of 13,500 feet from the sea level.
“Only those pilgrims, who possessed the CHC issued by authorized medical practitioner and Medical Institutes would be registered for the yatra”, sources said, adding the Shrine Board has decided to start the registration process in March to give ample time to the yatris to complete formalities especially the submission of the CHC.
The Shrine Board could once again assign process of the registration to Jammu and Kashmir Bank and some Cooperative Banks as had been the case last year. However, the Board has already decided to terminate the process of on-line registration as it was reportedly misused last year by some yatris to furnish false information.
Sources said the Shrine Board this year could register about 8.80 lakh pilgrims as the yatra has been extended to 55 days as compared to 39 days last year. The Board has decided to register 16,000 pilgrims per days-7500 on each route of Baltal and Pahalgam and 1000 for aerial yatra from both the routes.
During last year, 6.21 lakh yatris had performed darshan of holy Ice Lingam of Lord Shiva despite the yatra being confined to 39 days. However, there were reports that nearly 50 percent yatris were unregistered or without proper documents especially the health certificates.
Over 100 yatris had died due to lack of adequate medicare facilities on the twin tracks. This year, the Shrine Board has decided to set up Medical Aid Centres after every two kilometers distance on both the tracks.
Sources said the Shrine Board has decided to strictly implement the registration process with the help of police and para-military agencies with directions to security staff not to allow any yatris without registration including the CHC.
The Shrine Board staff would also be deployed at Bhagwati Nagar base camp as well as forward base camps of Baltal and Nunwan (Pahalgam) to verify authenticity of the CHC and ensure that it was registered by duly authorized medical practitioners and Medical Institutes.
Sources said the Shrine Board has so far received the list of authorized medical practitioners and Institutes from Jharkhand, Tripura, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Daman, Diu, Dadra, Nagar Haveli and Chandigarh, which has been put on the Board’s website shriamarnathjishrine.com. The list of other States and UTs would also be put on the website as soon as it was received to help the pilgrims get the CHC prepared from the authorized doctors/Institutes.
Governor NN Vohra, who happened to be Chairman of the SASB, has asked his Principal Secretary and CEO of the Board, Navin Choudhary to take up the matter with the States, which were yet to submit list of authorized doctors/Institutes for convenience of the pilgrims of those States.
Meanwhile, the CHC which was unveiled today by the SASB, has been drafted by a Committee of Medical Experts comprising Prof Parveen Aggarwal, Head, Department of Emergency Medicines, AIIMS, New Delhi, Dr J C Suri, Consultant, Department of Respiratory Medicines, Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi, Dr Bhaskar Rao CMO (SG), Composite Hospital (ITBP) Seema Nagar, Chandigarh, Dr Sanjeev Kapoor, MD Medicines, Government Hospital Sarwal, Jammu and Dr. Rafi Arshad, Medical Officer, Epidemiology, Kashmir Nursing Home, Srinagar, SASB CEO Navin Choudhary said.
He added that the format of the CHC has been circulated by the Union Health Ministry and the J&K State Health Department to all States/ UTs and is also available on the Website of the Shrine Board (www.shriamarnathjishrine.com).
Mr Choudhary said the Yatris shall have to submit information in the form of self-declaration about his/her existing health condition, past medical history and various ailments from which he/she may be suffering or may have suffered in the past. The authorised doctor would be required to prescribe such tests/investigations as may be necessary to ascertain the fitness of the Yatri to undertake the arduous pilgrimage before issuing the Health Certificate.
It may be recalled that Supreme Court had earlier constituted a Special High Powered Committee (SHPC) to recommend measures to be implemented to ensure better facilities to the Yatris. To minimise the unfortunate deaths of the Yatris during the Yatra, the SHPC had recommended that Yatris would need to furnish a Compulsory Health Certificate for registering themselves for the Yatra.
The Apex Court had directed that a Committee of three Medical Specialists from Union Health Ministry and one from the State Government should revise the certificate, if needed, to ensure that all the existing ailments of the intending Yatris are considered by the doctors before issuing the Health Certificate.
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