Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, July 1: Amid tight security and chanting of ‘Bum Bum Bhole’, the first batch of 1,282 pilgrims left for holy cave of Swami Amarnath Ji in South Kashmir district of Anantnag situated at an altitude of 3888 meters (12756 feet) from sea level early this morning from Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas here.
The yatra was flagged off by Deputy Chief Minister, Dr Nirmal Singh who was accompanied by Minister of State for Tourism, Education and Culture, Priya Sethi, MP, Jugal Kishore Sharma and senior civil and police officers at 0505 hours in a cavalcade of 33 vehicles including six light motor vehicles and 27 buses.
The yatris were dancing and singing bhajans in praise of Lord Shiva and were in high spirits and very enthusiastic for performing darshan of naturally formed Ice Lingam at holy cave of Swami Amarnath Ji.
As the first bus left the Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas for the holy cave the slogans like Bum Bum Bhole and Har Har Mahadev rented the air. The Government has made elaborate arrangements of security and boarding and lodging for pilgrims at Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas.
A big contingent of Police and CRPF as well as security men are manning the Yatri Niwas while many security pickets have been established in and around the Yatri Niwas to avert any untoward incident. The services of the sniffer dogs have been also utilized to sanitize the entire area and ensure fool proof security for the pilgrims in view of the recent attacks of militants in Pampore, Bijbehara and Anantnag towns of Kashmir valley on CRPF and local police.
To avert any untoward incident, the Government has this time taken extra caution and the drones will be used on both yatra tracks for surveillance, a police officer said. He informed that 12,500 Central para military personnel and 8000 JK Policemen will be deployed along the two yatra tracks in South Kashmir Pahalgam and Northeast Sonamarg Baltal track.
Maintaining that elaborate security and other arrangements have been made for the pilgrims, Deputy Chief Minster, Dr Nirmal Singh expressed the hope that this year yatra will be safe and successful.
Talking to reporters after flagging off the yatra, he said Pakistan in desperation is trying to create trouble in the State while holding it responsible for recent militant attacks in Valley.
He said fool-proof security arrangements have been made to ensure safety and security of the pilgrims going to have the darshan of Swami Amarnath right from Lakhanpur to holy cave. He said adequate security forces have been sent by Union Government to ensure incident free yatra.
Dr Singh said special enquiry centers have also been set up by police and other agencies for all type of information, particularly the weather condition on yatra routes.
He said we will not be cowed down by the attempts of Pakistan to create disturbances by masterminding attacks and pilgrims have a great enthusiasm to have darshan of holy cave. The terrorists will be themselves scared when people will come in large numbers for pilgrimage, he added.
MoS Tourism Priya Sethi said that Tourism Department has taken many steps for smooth conduct of yatra this year and in this regard recently she took up a meeting with officers at Pahalgam asking them to ensure hassle free yatra by providing every sort of facility to pilgrims right from their boarding lodging to medicare facilities.
She said for the women pilgrims the directives were given that women doctors be also deployed at base camps of Pahalgam, Baltal and other transit camps so that women pilgrims don’t face any problem.
Besides, the token system was also introduced for registration of pilgrims so that they can be registered on their turn instead of waiting in long queues. Moreover Tourism Department is introducing two site seeing buses from tomorrow to take the pilgrims to have the tour of border areas. This has been done for the entertainment of pilgrims during their stay at Jammu.
She said to ensure proper connectivity of BSNL on the two tracks as well as holy cave the authorities were issued directives to ensure that the pilgrims don’t face any problem on this account.
The Minister said to avert any problem due to vagaries of weather the Disaster Management has been kept alert and it has started the process in this regard while the Metrological Department has also been linked to WhatsApp Group of Tourism Department.
Director Tourism, Sushma Chauhan said that besides arranging tour of yatris to border areas cultural programmes will be held at Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas on every day after 8 pm onwards for entertainment of pilgrims.
Meanwhile, reports reaching here from Baltal said about 4000 pilgrims have reached the base camp by this evening where from they will proceed for darshan to holy cave early tomorrow morning. Sources said about 2000 pilgrims have reached Nunwan Base Camp till last reports came in where from they will also leave for holy cave early tomorrow morning.
While the pilgrims going via Baltal track will reach the cave shrine for darshan tomorrow the pilgrims leaving via Pahalgam route will reach the cave shrine after three night halts at Chandanwari, Sheshnag and Panchtarni.
The yatris both at Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas and Nunwan -Pahalgam base camp had no complaint about the arrangements saying this year arrangements were far better than previous years.
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