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| Pilgrims fume as Katra continues to reel under severe power crisis | | |
Jammu, June 7
:-For thousands of Vaishno Devi pilgrims, the prolonged power cuts in Katra, the base camp for the yatra, during the day time continue to leave a bitter taste in their mouth .As per rough estimates during day time the power cut extends beyond 12 hours causing lot of inconvenience to the pilgrims .For last couple of days power goes at 7.a.m in the morning and is restored at 7.00 p.m in the evening, a local resident said.
At least more than 15,000 to 20,000 pilgrims reach Katra every day with a hope that they would visit the holy cave shrine and enjoy their stay “loo” free katra town. Many among them plan to stay for a week even after performing their prayers in the cave shrine but they have been forced to cut short their stay because of the problems they have faced owing to prolonged power cuts.
Only those pilgrims escape discomfort who stay in hotels with power backup. A 70-year Kailash Devi from Haryana said “our family members, including children, had come to visit the holy Mata Vaishnov Devi Shrine. We had decided to spend at least a week in Katra where we found the day temperature lower than in Haryana where also we are faced with acute power shortage. But we were disappointed to see Katra town without electricity supply for most of the day which forced us to cut short our stay.”
Anil Mahajan from Punjab said “the Government should have realized that pilgrim traffic to Vaishnov Devi is the backbone of economy of the Jammu region as more than 65 lakh pilgrims visit the shrine every year which called for a special power package for Katra town and en-route to the Shrine. It has not been done which is unfortunate.”, he opined.
Mahajan said that the power crisis in Katra is not a new phenomenon and the Shrine Board which earns more than Rs.20 crores per year from the offerings of the pilgrims should have made separate arrangement for providing uninterrupted power supply in Katra and its adjoining areas where the pilgrims stay.
Some of the pilgrims have communicated to the Governor, Lt Gen (Retd ) S.K.Sinha, who heads the Shrine Board, about the difficulties being faced by the pilgrims. They have requested the Governor to intervene so that either the state Government was prompted to initiate measure for ensuring uninterrupted power supply or the Shrine Board takes in hand measures for providing a durable and dependable power backup.
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