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| Chaotic current registration counters leaving Amaranth devotees in deep mess | | | Kunal Shrivatsa
JAMMU, July 1: Though established with a purpose to facilitate 'On-Spot' registration of those Amaranth pilgrims who reach Jammu without obtaining a valid Yatra permit, the current registration counters set up across city, like previous years, are again hogging the limelight for wrong reasons.
The facility of Current Registration arrangement has been made available to Amarnath pilgrims at several locations in Jammu city including Vaishnavi Dham and Saraswati Dham near Railway Station, Jammu Haat (Exhibition Ground) and Ram Mandir, Purani Mandi.
As part of the compulsory guidelines to undertake the Amarnath yatra, the pilgrims, who arrive in Jammu without having valid yatra permits need to secure registration from these counters at Jammu before proceeding towards the Valley.
However, 'mismanagement' and 'chaos' are ruling the roost in these Current Registration Centres and the counter at Jammu Haat is no exception where hundreds of clueless Amarnath yatris were seen running from pillar to post to get themselves registered.
The unruly scenes at Jammu Haat have become a routine as even after spending hours together in queues several pilgrims could not able to obtain registration and go through the mandatory medical check-up.
Speaking to Early Times, one of the pilgrims, Dev Karan Piplodia from Indore, Madhya Pradesh said that he along with his group of 13 people are camping here in Jammu for the last eight but till date we have not secured a yatra permit owing to mess at Jammu Haat centre.
"We reached here on June 24 but unable to get ourselves registered till this time but While the process of registration is tiresome and time consuming, it also flourishes the touts who are fleecing yatris by assuring them hassle-free registration if one pays Rs 500 which in a way denies the rightful pilgrims of yatra permits despite standing in a queue for hours," said Piplodia.
When this scribe asked Piplodia and his group members that why didn't they apply for registration back home, pat came the reply that how could they obtain the same when only 3000 forms were allotted for the entire Indore region which comprises of five districts.
"It is ridiculous on part of Shri Amarnath Shrine Board that only 3000 forms were sanctioned for five districts of Indore, Dhar, Alirajpur, Jhabua and Khargun which have population of approximately 70-75 lakh," said Abhishek Chauhan from Dhar, Madhya Pradesh.
Long queues of pilgrims seeking medical certificates and Yatra permits at Jammu Haat are being manned by only two-three cops while the frequent power shut downs adds to the already compounded miseries of the innocent yatris, who are forced to stand for hours together waiting for their turn in sweltering heat.
A large number of yatris said that Registration Counter is ill-equipped and lacks proper facilities due to which the yatris are facing lot of hardships.
"Fans are non-operational as power goes with the blink of an eye… Pilgrims have no other option but to collect their yatra permits in hot and humid conditions," said Brijesh Kumar from Jalalpur in Ambedkar Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh.
Though Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) is making frequent appeals to the pilgrimage to ensure that they complete the necessary registration formalities and obtain a valid Yatra Permit before embarking on the pilgrimage to avoid inconvenience but the way in which the current registration process is being handled has put a big question mark over the entire exercise. |
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