Avtar Bhat
—Excelsior/Rakesh
JAMMU, July 7: Though Amarnath yatra is picking up considerably for last some days, the mismanagement on the part of Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) and State Government especially in registration of yatris has generated a lot of public resentment.
Following the slow process of registration with hundreds of yatris still remaining unregistered despite standing in queues for days together at different registration counters here, the Amarnath pilgrims staged a protest demonstration in front of Jammu Haat here this afternoon.
The protesting yatris raising slogans against the administration for the chaos and confusion which prevail at registration counters warned to launch agitation against Board at Jammu and their respective States. This forced the Deputy Commissioner Jammu, Simrandeep Singh, MLA Jammu East, Rajesh Gupta and other senior police and civil officers to visit Jammu Haat and pacify the agitating yatris. The DC announced that more quota will be increased for the day and people in queue will be registered.
After the officers left the Jammu Haat, the officials at registration counter announced that today’s quota has finished and they were not granted permission by the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) regarding enhancing the quota for the day. This again evoked a strong protest among the yatris who were standing in long queues and they resorted to sloganeering against the administration.
However police came into action and beat some youth with lathis and dragged two of them outside the Jammu Haat. But, the yatris did not disperse and continued protest. Some of the pilgrims who were waiting in the queue were seen engaged into heated exchanges with a police officer of SP’s rank who was asking the yatris to leave the Jammu Haat as there will be no registration today.
The officials on registration counters also made announcement through public address system asking pilgrims to leave the venue and report tomorrow morning for registration.
The protestors said that they were coming for registration for last three days continuously but every day they leave empty hands. The yatris while criticizing the administration for poor arrangements said they are being harassed for registration and asked is it a sin to come for darshan of holy Ice Lingam in J&K State?
Satnaraian Ohaja of Billwara, Rajasthan who was heading a group of 60 yatris said that DM announced 200 more quota will be increased for today and for one hour the yatris are standing in queue but not a single pilgrims was registered. He alleged agent -officials’ nexus in registration and said that the pilgrims reporting for last three days from early in the morning return empty hands.
The police on duty is harassing us and we are being maltreated. “ When we complained before an officer he instead of sorting the issue told us to talk to media which is a serious issue”, he added.
Expressing his serious concern over the attitude of authorities towards the pilgrims in Jammu, Rameshwar Lal a pilgrim from MP who heads a group of 100 yatris said this has happened when BJP is in Government in the State. He warned to make it a national issue saying that if Government is unable to tackle the yatra they should close it once for all as we don’t come for harassment here.
Gopal Krishan and Rajesh Maheshwar, two pilgrims from MP who were also among the protestors at Jammu Haat said their children and wives are in queue from 3am this morning and upto 2 pm they are hungry. “We have no place to take refuge here and our entire group of 100 pilgrims is wandering here and there”.
He said it is the duty of authorities to affix a board in front of registration counter displaying the quota for the day so that the extra number of pilgrims coming for registration will leave the counter and come next day much earlier. But this is not being done and the yatris are only harassed, he added.
However when contacted Dr Piyush Singla, Additional DC Jammu who is also the Nodal Officer for Yatra said that administration has decided to start token system from tomorrow at Jammu Haat for registration and the yatris who could not get registration slips today will be given priority tomorrow. He said the token system has been started at Vaishnavi Dham and Saraswati Dham Rail Head.
Maintaining that it is a big challenge, Dr Singla said the administration is taking all steps to tackle the issue. He said one more medial check up counter for pilgrims facilities was established at Jammu Haat today.
Meanwhile, on the 6th day of darshan today, 19,512 pilgrims paid obeisance at holy cave. With this the total number of pilgrims paying obeisance in cave shrine since the yatra started from Jammu on July 1 touched 85,007.
A fresh batch of 2614 pilgrims including 1878 male, 546 female, 40 children and 150 Sadhus left Jammu Yatri Niwas under tight security measures for holy cave early this morning in a cavalcade of 78 vehicles. All these pilgrims had crossed the Jawahar Tunnel by the evening and were on way to twin base camps.
A spokesman said that three pilgrims died after returning from holy cave. He said one pilgrim namely Narender Bhai Patel, 65, son of Goverdhan Bhai Patel of Kotwali Darwazo Azad Maidan Nammo Anand Gujarat died at Chandanwari due to breathing problem today. His body was handed over to his relatives for last rites.
Two more pilgrims have reportedly died late last night at Panchtarni and near holy cave. They were identified as Subash Chander 63 of Chandigarh. He breathed his last due to cardiac arrest near Panchtarni. Another pilgrim identified as Ramshanker 50 of UP died near holy cave after cardiac arrest.
Meanwhile six Amarnath pilgrims from Hissar in Haryana were injured when their Innova car rolled down into a gorge near Toldi Nallah on the National Highway near Udhampur, here this evening.
The pilgrims were on way to home after performing Darshan at holy Amarnath cave in South Kashmir when their Innova car, bearing registration number HR57-0999, skidded off the road while trying to overtake another vehicle near Toldi Nallah resulting into the accident.
Locals and Police rushed to the spot and shifted the injured persons to Udhampur District Hospital.
They were identified as Sukhjeet Singh (30) son of Swarn Singh, Vinod Kumar (34) son of Mahar Singh, Munish Jain (28) son of Suresh Jain, Arun Singh (29) son of Mahar Singh, Sunil Kumar (24) son of Kalu Ram and driver Labh Singh (30) son of Gurdyal Singh.
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