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| Asks media not to over play this phenomenon | | AJHLA expresses concern over melting of Ice Lingam | |
Jammu July 2: Expressing its serious concern over the total melting of Ice lingam at Amarnath cave shrine, All Jammu Hotels and Lodges Association has advised the media as well as all those concerned with the yatra not to overplay this phenomenon and project the same in a way which discourages the prospective pilgrims and dampens their spirit to undertake the yatra.
A meeting of the Jammu Hoteliers body, held here today, under the Chairmanship of its President. Inderjeet Khajuria contented that while having darshan and paying obeisance to the Ice Lingam of Lord Shiva is a great attraction and motivating force for the pilgrims, yet the sanctity and significance of the sanctum sanctorum, in the cave, in the high Himalayan Mountains, where Lord Shiva revealed the secret of eternity to his consort, Parvati is no less significant and a source of attraction and motivation for the pilgrims to visit the shrine to pay obeisance there, irrespective of whether the snow Shiv lingam is there or not and whatever size it has assumed.
The last year's experience, when too the Shiv lingam had melted and disappeared much before the conclusion of the yatra and despite the controversy raked over artificial creation of snow lingam, the spirit of the pilgrims had not dampened and their faith was not shattered.
The yatra touched last year the figure of little less than four lakhs.
AJHLA has appreciated and hailed various steps taken by the Shrine Board, particularly by its Chairman, the State Governor Gen. S K Sinha to promote and give boost to the yatra. Despite conspiracies to obstruct the yatra, the Chairman SASB, disregarding all the objections by the prophets of gloom extended the period of yatra for two months, in the teeth of opposition to it from the elements opposed to Hindu religious yatra, which equally benefits the local Muslims and boost their economy. The Jammu hoteliers association has warned against the forces who under one pretext or the other try to place obstacles in the way of prolonging the yatra period, encouraging and facilitating more and more pilgrims to undertake the yatra. It also hailed various steps taken by the SASB to facilitate the pilgrims and ensure the same to be echo friendly, taking effective measures so that a much larger number of pilgrims visiting the shrine do not create pollution and environment hazards.
Reiterating the concern of all those interested in promotion of the pilgrimage, the Association posed some moot questions to the SASB as to how the snow Shiv lingam totally melted and disappeared even before the performance of Pratham Pujan and the official commencement of the yatra. It demanded that an inquiry should be held into the matter and listed the possible reasons for the unwelcome phenomenon.
According to the reports emanating from reliable sources a group of 500 NRIs who were conducted by an agency to undertake the yatra before its official start, stayed there inside the cave for 4-5 days, used generators for getting light and even LPG cylinders for cooking food etc. Similarly another 2000 pilgrims who had gone there before the official start of yatra got stranded there and used all the heating methods apart from unlimited number of sorties being undertaking by the helicopter transporting VIPs and some other wealthy people to the cave shrine and its landing near the cave is also responsible for early melting of the snow lingam. It suggested that the landing pad for the helicopter should be at a distance of 2 to 3 kms from the cave as well as no burning of fire, cooking of food on LPGs and use of generators etc allowed within 2kms of the cave shrine.
While arguing that the global heating and melting of the glaciers over the cave might have already contributed to the early melting of snow lingam, AJHLA has reiterated its suggestion that the Shrine Board with the help of DRDO should use scientific devices, like creation of a snow house, around the sanctum sanctorum, without in anyway touching the snow lingam, but to protect it from early melting.
AJHLA has also hailed the decision to set up the permanent base camp of Amarnath yatra at Bhagwati Nagar, in Jammu city. It has asked for expediting the work on this project and connecting of the site with the road near the main Tawi Bridge, through a flyover or high level road. It has also demanded that registration of the pilgrims should be dome at Jammu, so that in case of inclement weather, when the pilgrims are stranded, they can comfortably stay at Jammu, where they are thrown all the hospitality by the locals who serve them free food in various langars as well as they can be lodged comfortably at the base camp to be setup, in Srinagar, Baltal or at Phalgam such facilities are not available to the pilgrims, who very often run out of pocket due to getting stranded there.
Others who were present in the meeting included Pawan Gupta, Gen Secretary, Ajay Gupta, Sr. Vice President, H. S. Manhas, Vice President, Ajay Suri, Secretary, Vikram Singh, Publicity Secretary and Baldev, Treasurer.
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