Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, July 4: The two- month long holy Amarnath yatra which started from here on July 1 is picking up day-by-day with 12,416 pilgrims paying obeisance at cave shrine on third day of darshan today.
According to an official spokesman, 12,416 pilgrims drawn from different parts of the country performed darshan at holy cave situated at an altitude of 3888 metres from sea level in deep Himalayas of Kashmir Valley. With this 30,773 yatris had performed darshan in holy cave during last three days.
The spokesman said that 4350 yatris have reached Baltal base camp from different parts of country by this evening while others were on their way. He said 1422 pilgrims left for holy cave by air from Baltal while 1393 returned after performing darshan in cave shrine by this evening.
Spokesman said five yatris were injured after a fall late last night near Panchtarni and they were brought to Neelgrah via chopper. They included two women and three men. The group of these pilgrims belonged to UP and MP States. One of them has been admitted in Bone and Joints Hospital Srinagar for treatment while others were given first aid at Baltal medical camp.
The weather was pleasant and it was a sunny day today, the spokesman said, adding 5464 pilgrims left Nunwan Base camp for holy cave today while hundreds of yatris continued to track via Baltal track to holy cave for entire day.
The yatris who left via Nunwan after having night halts at Chandanwari, Sheshnag and Panchtarni will reach holy cave after two days while those leaving via shortest Baltal track will perform darshan the same day, spokesman added.
Spokesman said over 3000 pilgrims are camping at Pahalgam and Nunwan for their onwards journey tomorrow.
A fresh batch of 2049 pilgrims left for cave shrine from Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas early this morning under tight security measures. They included 1418 male, 406 female, 25 children and 186 Sadhus. They left in a cavalcade of 60 vehicles. All these yatris had crossed the Jawahar Tunnel by the evening and were on their way to twin base camps, spokesman added.
Meanwhile, thousands of yatris reaching here daily from other parts of the country continued to face the registration problems. Some yatris informed this correspondent who made the round of various registration counters here during the day that for last three days they have failed to get registration despite standing in the queue continuously daily from early in the morning.
Ramesh Bahal, a pilgrim from UP said that he was in the queue at Jammu Haat since 4am today but he failed to get registration like over 200 pilgrims who were standing in a long queue.
Same was the story of pilgrims at current registration counters at Vaishnavi Dham and Saraswati Dham near Railway Station. Some pilgrims said that they are here for last two days but could not seek registration as yet while others said that they are in groups and some members of the group managed to seek registration while others have been asked to try tomorrow.
The pilgrims expressed concern over denial of registration to them when for last two days only 18000 pilgrims performed darshan in cave shrine instead of 30000. They said daily 15000 pilgrims, 7500 from Baltal and 7500 from Nunwan track can perform darshan in holy cave but during these two days the number was far less. The authorities could have opened more registration counters and permitted all the unregistered yatris to leave for darshan which they are hesitating to do for unknown reasons, they added.
However the officials at registration counters said that they are given a fixed quota for registration every day by Board and they can’t go beyond that. When contacted Dr Pyush Singh, Additional Deputy Commiss-ioner, Jammu who is also the Nodal Officer for Yatra said that he has taken up the issue with Shrine Board authorities.
Dr Singh said that the Board has agreed to increase the fresh registration quota. He expressed the hope that the quota for registration will increase within day or two. He also informed that registration counters at Jammu are functioning properly.
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