Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, July 2: Notwithstanding, the claims of Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) and State administration that all arrangements are in place for Amarnath pilgrims, chaos and confusion prevailed at yatra registration counters at Exhibition Ground, Vaishnavi Dham and Saraswati Dham as well as Yatri Niwas Bhagwati Nagar where no proper arrangements have been made for the pilgrims reaching here from different parts of country to embark on annual Amaranth pilgrimage.
The mismanagement on the part of Shrine Board as well as the administration has evoked a strong public resentment and people not only blamed the Board and administration for their deliberate move to fail the annual yatra by subjecting the thousands of pilgrims to inconvenience and harassment, also accuse the ministers from Jammu and leaders of various political parties including the BJP which always claims to be the champion of the yatris cause for this mess.
The callousness of the Board and authorities can be gauged from the fact that yatris are subjected to humiliation at registration counters as no proper arrangements have been made for their registration at Exhibition Ground registration counter and other places. The yatris are made to sit in long queues for hours together as only two counters have been opened there. Out of them one counter is for male and another is for female.
The situation is so grave that many pilgrims have decided to return to their home States without going for darshan or move to picnic spots of Himachal Pradesh or other places. “We are sitting in queue from early in the morning but are not sure that we will get ourselves registered as there is heavy rush and the number of counters is very less”, said Anil Chibber a pilgrim from Ludhiana, Punjab.
He said it seems the SASB and authorities are not interested in running the yatra as they deliberately create problems for pilgrims instead of solving them. Anil who heads a group of 50 yatris from neighboring Punjab said that in case they don’t get registration today they will return to their home State as there is no body to listen to the woes of pilgrims.
Same were the views of Neelkant, a pilgrim from Dulhay, Maharashta who heads of group of 90 pilgrims. He said his group reached here two days back and since then they were wandering for registration. Neelkant, who was also in the queue at Exhibition ground registration counter said “you see what is the condition here and people are jostling with each other for getting themselves registered.” Under these circumstances who will like to come for darshan as pilgrims don’t like to fight with each other to seek their registration slips first. It appears that the yatris who are here in the queue will get their number after two days, he added.
Ram Prahlad a Shiv Sena activist from Maharashtra took the State as well as the Central Government to task for lack of arrangements for Amarnath pilgrims. He said the NDA Government at Delhi was supposed to intervene and ask the SASB to provide better facilities for pilgrims. If this is the state of affairs here who will like to come for the yatra and be harassed, he added.
He said at least a Minister should visit here and see the arrangements himself. Even there are no proper arrangements at Yatri Niwas and pilgrims who reach three four days in advance of darshan date are not allowed to camp in Yatri Niwas. Moreover the pilgrims after entering the Yatri Niwas are not allowed to come out and are kept hostage there. This unfortunate act of the security agencies and SASB is not tolerable, he added.
The yatris also complained that there are no transportation facilities from Railway Station to Yatri Niwas or registration counters as was announced by the Board earlier. Besides there is insanitation in Yatri Niwas also, they added.
However when contacted DC Jammu, A K Sahu said that the quota for registration is limited while the demand is more. He said four registration counters have been opened in Jammu and once the quota for Pahalgam route reaches the rush will ease within two -four days.
Meanwhile despite inclement weather conditions, the first batch of 4166 pilgrims left via Chandanwari track for holy cave while 8,922 left via Baltal track on the fifth day of yatra today.
A spokesman of SASB said that 10,628 pilgrims paid obeisance at the holy cave. Till date, 61,156 yatris have paid obeisance in the cave shrine since the first day of darshan on June 28.
The spokesman said that due to overcast of sky with clouds and rains in the morning, the yatra got delayed and the first batch of pilgrims left from Baltal at 6.50 am and from Chandanwari at 6.10 am. While on a fair weather day the fist batch if yatris leaves from Baltal at 4.45 am and from Chandanwari at 6 am.
A fresh batch of 1475 pilgrims left Jammu for holy cave early this morning in a cavalcade of 47 vehicle. They included 1074 men, 231 women, 21 children 149 Sadhus. Till now 7744 pilgrims have left Jammu for holy cave since the first batch of pilgrims was flagged off on June 27 from here.
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