Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 22: All Jammu Hotels & Lodges Association (AJHLA) has expressed serious concern on the abrupt decline of ongoing Shri Amarnath ji Yatra and attributed it to the security lapse, which lead to the innocent killings of yatries during a dreaded militancy attack on Yatri bus at Anantnag.
Addressing a meeting of the association held here today, Pawan Gupta, AJHLA president said that despite the fact that the Government had already mobilized heavy security blanket of 35000 to 40000 troops the militants attack on the pilgrims’ bus was a surprise and unfortunate. The fact remains that the Yatra has suffered a serious setback due to militants’ attack.
“The start of Shri Amarnath Ji Yatra 2017 was very hopeful and the way it was continued for first ten days it was expected that the figure would touch more than 7 lakh but the terrorists’ attack has ruined the fate of the whole yatra”, he said, adding, the present situation is such that the Yatra reduced to 1141 yatries left from Bhagwati Nagar whereas 4655 paid their obeisance at holy cave on August 21, where a cumulative total of 231997 yatries paid their obeisance till date.
Gupta said that AJHLA is really concerned on continuous failures of Shri Amarnath Ji Yatra year after year as the tourism traders, hoteliers and all other concerned businessmen had already suffered a great setback due to train link extension to Katra and all the tall claims made by Prime Minister and Chief Ministers have failed miserably and Jammu virtually has become Pathankot.
“It is really unfortunate that no Government till date could succeed in making Jammu as an independent tourist destination, despite tall claims of launching mega projects to attract night stay of tourists and yatries, of which not even a single could see light of the day including Artificial Lake Project on Tawi River started during 2010”, he added.
He appealed the Central as well as State Government to ensure foolproof security and adopting of different measures to prolong the longevity of Shri Holy Ice Lingam.
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