Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 29 : With 3,50,195 pilgrims performing darshan at holy cave during 31 days of yatra till today, the 44 day long Amarnath pilgrimage has crossed the last years mark of 3.50 lakh.
According to an official spokesman, 3,443 pilgrims paid obeisance at holy cave today taking the number of pilgrims performing darshan since the 44 day long yatra started on June 28 to 3, 50,195.
However, there has been sharp decline in number of pilgrims visiting the holy cave after the unfortunate Baltal episode of July 18 this year as the number of pilgrims performing darshan of Icy Lingam daily constantly decreased to half of the number since then.
This has led to a lot of resentment among the people with various organizations including Baba Amarnath and Buddha Amarnath Yatri Niyas and Hotels and Lodges Association as well as members of other business communities accusing the Amarnath Shrine Board and State administration for the same.
Some organizations including VHP and Bajrang Dal have openly accused the Board of its failure in taking pre-emptive steps in averting the July 18 episode at Baltal which was followed by cylinder blast near the base camp of Baltal few days later of the Baltal violence.
They said such incidents created panic among the people, resulted in decline of the annual yatra. The BD leader Rakesh Sharma said SASB was never interested from the beginning to increase the number of pilgrims visiting the holy cave every year.
Accusing the Board of decreasing the duration of Yatra from two months to 44 days, VHP patron Dr Rama Kant Dubey said that this was done to please a particular section in Valley. The Board was never interested that the yatra should increase and more and more pilgrims should visit the holy cave otherwise there was no harm in running the yatra from Jesht Purnima to Sawan Purnima as was a precedence, he added.
He said every year controversy is being created on Amarnath yatra. He criticized the Board for fixing the duration of yatra from 60 days to 44 days and demanded that yatra period be extended beyond 60 dyas.
He said creating hurdles by Board in free movement of yatris and restricting the registration were some other problems which discouraged the yatra.
However, the Shrine Board while refuting these allegations in a statement issued here, today said that the yatra is continuing at a stead pace and the number of pilgrims who have visited the holy cave this year is slightly more than the number who visited last year.
Rakesh K Gupta, Chief Executive Officer of the Board said that last year the yatra commenced from both Baltal and Chandaanwari tracks on June 28 while this year the yatra commenced on June 28 only from Baltal track and from Chandanwari route it was started on July 2.
He said despite the yatra starting late this year from Chandanwari track 3,46,752 yatris had paid obeisance at holy cave till July 28 while till the corresponding day last year 3,27,507 pilgrims had performed darshan.
Mr Gupta said the data pertaining to preceding yatras indicates that every year the yatra declined after July 15. Despite this declining trend, over one lakh yatris had visited the holy cave from July 15 to July 25 this year, he added.
It may be recalled that the highest number of 6.34 lakh pilgrims performed darshan at holy cave in 2011 while 6.22 pilgrims performed darshan in 2012. However the number declined by 45 percent in 2013 when only 3.50 lakh pilgrims performed darshan in the holy cave.
According to data during the year 2004 when the yatra period was increased to 60 days four lakh pilgrims paid obeisance at holy cave. In 2005 also four lakh pilgrims had visited the cave shrine while in 2003 when the duration of yatra was only 30 days 1.70 lakh pilgrims had performed darshan in the cave shrine.
In 2006 about 3.50 lakh pilgrims visited the holy cave, while in 2007, three lakh pilgrims performed darshan of the Icy lingam at cave shrine. Even during the land row agitation in 2008 over 5.33 lakh pilgrims performed darshan while in 2009 four lakh pilgrims visited the cave shrine. In 2010 over 4.50 lakh pilgrims performed darshan in the holy cave and the yatra was of two months duration in all these years.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel