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| Pilgrims protest as yatra remains suspended for third straight day | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, June 18: A fresh batch of nearly 5000 pilgrims today left the Baltal base camp despite cloudy conditions to pay obeisance at the 3,880 metre Amarnath cave shrine in South Kashmir, even as the yatra remained suspended from Jammu due to bad weather for the third day in a row triggering protests by devotees.
"A group of 4,912 pilgrims were allowed from the Baltal base camp, 100 kms from here, towards the cave shrine this morning although the weather was cloudy," official sources said.
Of them, 2300 pilgrims performed ‘darshan’ of the naturally formed ice-shivlingam by this afternoon, raising the number of pilgrims who had offered their prayers at the shrine to 14,778 since the commencement of the yatra on June 15, the sources said.
While 7,592 pilgrims offered prayers on the first day, 4,886 offered their prayers yesterday, they said adding the number included those pilgrims who visited the cave shrine, using the chopper service.
The yatra is going on smoothly and there is no report of rainfall or snow along the 16-km track from Baltal to the cave so far although sky remained cloudy, they said.
Due to bad weather the yatra from Jammu to the holy cave remained suspended for the third consecutive day today. Over two thousand Amarnath yatris at Bagwati Nagar, Jammu’s base camp staged a dharna and shouted slogans against the State Government and the shrine board accusing them of failing to conduct the yatra smoothly. They were demanding immediate restoration of the yatra to the cave shrine and alleging that hundreds of unregistered pilgrims from Baltal were being allowed to perform ‘darshan’.
They were later pacified by top police officials and civil authorities who told them that they were not being allowed to undertake their onward journey due to bad weather.
"The decision not to allow fresh yatris from Jammu was taken as a precuationary measure in view of the inclement weather conditions and also to clear the sizeable number of stranded pilgrims at Baltal and various other camps in the valley," a spokesman of the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) said.
All Jammu Hotels and Lodges Association (AJHLA) also accused the state government of not conducting the Amarnath yatra smoothly this year.
"There is total chaos and mismanagement with regard to the yatra from Jammu to Amarnath. While weather has played the spoilsport, the administration has failed to conduct the yatra smoothly", AJHLA President Inderjeet Khajuria told reporters.
Yesterday, a landslide struck Kanchi Morh near Brari Marg along the track resulting in the death of two porters.
The SASB restricted the yatra to Baltal side only as the traditional 46-km Pahalgam-cave track is not through yet and is still covered under heavy snow at several places between Sheshnag, Mahagunas top and Panjtarni.
Meanwhile, a large number of pilgrims stranded in Jammu due to suspension of pilgrimage for the third consecutive day have started feeling the pinch of rising cost of stay in Jammu. Several of them feeling dejected with the poor quality of food and looming uncertainity over the start of yatra asembled here at yatri bhawan and shouted slogans against the state police and shrine board authorities for their miseries.
The stranded pilgrims also threatened to sit on hunger strike to convey their anger to the higher authorities if not permitted to leave Jammu on Friday.
The pilgrims wanted to know how large number of pilgrims camping in Baltal manged to reach there if local police authorities were regulating the flow of traffic. The pilgrims blamed the state government for creating this chaotic situation where everyone is suffering.
Raghuvansh Prasad , a devout shiv bhakt from Varansi camping in Jammu along with his family members said that he is running out of money as he is camping here in Jammu for last four days.
He said he reached Jammu on June 15 to join the second batch of pilgrims via baltal route but since then the pilgrimage has been halted due to bad weather conditions.He said each diet costs around Rs 25 per member and in one day he is incurring an expendiure of more 600-700 on food and refreshments.
On the other hand the growing unrest among stranded pilgrims is also becasue of poor quality of food available at the food court.We do not relish food made available to us at the food court, Prasad's daughter Reema said. SP Banam Tosh incharge of security at Yatri bhawan claimed adequate security arrangements are in place to ensure security of stranded pilgrims.He made several attempts to convince angry pilgrims by telling them that keeping in view their safety the state authorities are not allowing them to proceed to Baltal as there is huge rush of pilgrims waiting their turn to perform darshan inside the holy cave.
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