Langar people go on strike due to harassment by authorities

Avtar Bhat

JAMMU, July 10: All the langers at Baltal and enroute to holy cave were closed today as a mark of protest by the Sevadars against the action of police and local administration which dismantled some tents that were installed by them adjacent to the langers for facilities of yatris.
The langerwalas also staged a protest demonstration against the action of local administration and accused it of intimidating the langer people and harassing the yatris on way to holy cave for darshan. “This is nothing but a ploy to discourage the annual Amarnath pilgrimage”, said Pappu, a Sevadar at a Langer being run by a group of philanthropists from Karnal, Haryana at Baltal.
The langer people at Baltal and other places on the track to holy cave staged a demonstration against the action of administration and decided to close the Langer till Governor N N Vohra or CEO of Shri Amarnath Shrine Board visits Baltal and gives an assurance to them that in future such type of incidents will not be repeated and no Sevadar or yatri will be harassed by the police or local administration.
They also demanded that the local police on both the tracks and twin base camps be replaced by CRPF and BSF for the smooth conduct of annual pilgrimage.
Reports reaching here said that thousands of pilgrims camping at Baltal and enroute to holy cave could not get any thing to eat due to the strike of langer people. There is total chaos and confusion at Baltal and the administration was tightlipped over the incident.
Sources said the highhandedness of the local administration provoked the langer people who registered a strong protest and raised slogans against it. Accusing the State administration of creating trouble and harassing the yatris and Langer people unnecessary, Dhyan Chand, a Sevadar at a local langer at Baltal told Excelsior that the administration was doing it deliberately to discourage the yatra and the Shrine Board was looking as a mute spectator to all this.
He said that the langer people and yatris are being provoked by the administration unnecessarily and same was done last year too. However, the official spokesman said, that the tents were installed without permission of the Shrine Board and administration.
Meanwhile, due to heavy rains and slippery track the Amarnath yatra was stopped both at Baltal and Nunwan base camps today and no yatri was allowed to proceed towards the holy cave during the day.
According to an official spokesman, no yatri was allowed to proceed further from Baltal and Nunwan base camps towards the holy cave due heavy rains in the morning at Baltal and Nunwan -Pahalgam and the slippery tracks.
He said over five thousand pilgrims are camping at Baltal while the equal number is also at Nunwan Base Camp.
However 10,378 pilgrims performed darshan at Cave Shrine despite the heavy downpour today and they have started the return journey towards Baltal, the spokesman said. These yatris had reached holy cave during last night while others were on way from Baltal and Panchtarni. With this the total number of pilgrims performing darshan at cave Shrine in Lider Valley of South Kashmir district of Anantnag has touched 1,31,706.
He said but the yatris were allowed to leave for darshan by air from Baltal after 11 am today and 385 pilgrims left for holy cave through choppers while 381 returned from cave shrine.
The spokesman said the forward movement of yatris was also stopped at Chandanwari, Sheshnag and Panchtarni due to heavy rains and slippery track to avert any untoward incident.
He said that rain stopped at 11 am but weather was cloudy on both the tracks up to holy cave throughout the day.
At Jammu, the yatris continued to face the problems at the registration counters here due to lack of proper facilities.
The yatris were completely drenched in the rain water at Jammu Haat registration counter and at Vaishnavi and Saraswati Dham registration counters as the authorities have failed to provide shelters for pilgrims to save them either from heavy rains of Monsoon or humid and hot temperature.
The yatris at Jammu Haat registration counter faced a worst experience today as they have to wait for hours together in open for registration in heavy rains.
Meanwhile, a fresh batch of 24 22 pilgrims left the Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas here early this morning under tight security measures for holy cave in a cavalcade of 68 vehicles.
They included 1691 male 540 female, 44 children and 147 Sadhus. The yatra convoy was stopped at Kud due to landslides on National Highway up to 2pm and later the Highway was restored for traffic and convoy was allowed to proceed further.
The cavalcade of vehicles was on their way to twin base camps of Nunwan and Baltal when last reports came in.

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