Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, July 3: On the second day of Shri Amarnath yatra, 9,920 pilgrims paid obeisance at holy cave. With this, 18,321 pilgrims had darshan of Ice Lingam in the Cave Shrine situated in deep Himalayas at an altitude of 3888 metres in South Kashmir district of Anantnag during last two days.
According to an official spokesman, the yatris rush is increasing and about 5000 pilgrims from different parts of country have reached the Base camp of Nunwan to leave for the darshan of holy cave tomorrow. Besides, about 8000 pilgrims have reached at Baltal Base camp to leave for holy cave tomorrow.
The spokesman said that hundreds of pilgrims left for holy cave from both Baltal and Nunwan base camps early this morning while the pilgrims having a night halt at Chandanwari, Sheshnag and Panchtarni also started their onwards journey to holy cave.
He said 1300 pilgrims left for holy cave from Baltal by air and after performing darshan at cave shrine they returned to Srinagar.
The spokesman said the weather on both the tracks was pleasant today.
Meanwhile, the third batch of 2017 pilgrims left for base camps of Baltal and Nunwan from Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas early this morning under tight security arrangements. They included 1581 men, 307 women, 25 children and 103 Sadhus. These pilgrims left in a cavalcade of 66 vehicles and all of them had crossed the Jawahar Tunnel and were on their way to twin base camps.
The spokesman said that the yatra was going on smoothly and the administration and Shrine Board have made elaborate arrangements for the pilgrims right from Lakhanpur to holy cave.
However, the yatris coming from different parts of the country for darshan of ice lingam are facing difficulties in their registration. Hundreds of yatris are camping here for last three days for want of registration. These pilgrims are continuously visiting Jammu Haat where the current registration counter has been opened by the Government since July 1 but to no avail.
There is a huge rush on registration counters, said Ram Paul from Agra who heads of group of 54 pilgrims. He said out of 54 pilgrims 49 got registration slips while five have not been given the slips as the authorities at the counter said that today’s quota has exhausted. “We can’t leave for darshan by leaving them here as we all have come in a group”, he added.
He said our pleas were turned down by the officials and for last three days we could not get registration and now have to wait for one more day also.
Rinku, another pilgrim from MP heading a group of nine pilgrims said they are waiting for registration for last two days but to no avail. He said yesterday as well as today we entered the queue at 2am only to get ourselves registered. But there was so rush after the counter opened in the morning that two female pilgrims from our team fell down in jostling and got injured.
He also alleged that they came in a pilgrimage tour package and the driver of the bus told them that he will arrange their registration but for the last two days we are wandering here and it is not known for how many days we have to face this ordeal.
These pilgrims also accused the travel agencies of cheating them by promising all arrangements including medical and registration and after reaching here they turn their back.
These pilgrims demanded that registration quota be increased as hundreds of pilgrims are in a state of frustration here for want of registration. The medical certificates are not entertained by the officials and the pilgrims standing in queue are asked to get fresh medical certificates which is impossible as this way a lot of time and energy is lost, said Chagan Lal of Partap Garh Rajasthan, heading a group of 26 pilgrims.
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