news details |
|
|
| Curtailing Amarnath Yatra Duration | | History repeating itself in Jammu, ball in the governor’s court | |
MINCING NO WORDS
NEHA
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, May 13: Believe it or not, but it is a fact that the State Government in 2004 tried its level best to derail the whole Amarnath Yatra. It is not a charge. It is a statement of fact. Take, for example, the conflict between the then Governor, Lt Gen (retd) S K Sinha, and the State government. Both of them were on warpath and for different reasons. This became quite evident when the counsels for the Shrine Board and the State Government countered each other’s arguments before Justice Permod Kohli, who was dealing with the write petition of Ram Pal Bathonia on the issue of Shri Amarnath Yatra.
During the course of hearing, the counsel for the Shrine Board, U. K. Jalali, told Justice Kohli that the “government officials were creating hurdles in the way of the Shrine Board” and “not allowing” it to carry on activities needed to make the pilgrimage smooth. In this context, he told the High Court that the “officials of the State Government, including the Additional Deputy Commissioner and police officers, have stopped the Board from carrying pre-fabricated huts and other material required for providing facilities to pilgrims”. “Even labourers were stopped with their tools”, Jalali told the High Court. He also told the High Court that the “shrine Board…approached the State Government for transfer of the land en-route the holy cave beyond Chandanwari for construction to provide facilities like shelters, toilets/bath rooms etc. vide its communication dated 27-4-2001”, but no steps were taken by it. (This happened when Girish Chandra Saxena was the Governor and Farooq Abdullah Chief Minister.)
As for the counsel for the State Government, he repeatedly told the High Court that the State Government was not opposed to the pilgrimage. What the State Government opposed to was, he told, the decision of the Shrine Board to increase the number of pilgrims, prolong the period of the pilgrimage, air condition the cave, start helicopter service, acquire “forest” land and so on. He told the High Court that the Government was opposing the Shrine Board decisions on valid grounds. The arguments advanced in defence were (1) the “increase in the number of yatris (pilgrims) would lead to miserable consequences, including epidemics and natural calamities” and create security-related problems, (2) the Shrine Board decided to enhance the pilgrimage period “overlooking the fact that the life of the ice lingam is limited in time”, (3) the decisions of the Shrine Board were “diluting the sovereign status of the state” and the Shrine Board had made the “State subservient and subordinate to the Board”, (4) the “air conditioning of the cave would have serious repercussions” and it would “hurt the faith and religious trust of the devotees in case any superficial treatment is given to the ice lingam after or during its formation”, (5) the “running of generators around the Shrine can damage the ecology”, (6) the “State of Jammu and Kashmir is at present bound by the directions issued by the apex court (Supreme Court) of the country wherein felling of the forest produce and interference in the forest land has been prohibited” and (7) the “jurisdiction of the Shrine Board is confined and restricted to the land over which the Shrine is situated and to a certain area surrounding the Shrine” and the “Board has a limited role i.e., maintenance of the Shrine, performance of Puja and undertake developmental activities around the Shrine.”
The arguments of the counsel for the State Government were not tenable in the sense that the Shrine Board was fully conscious of its duties and jurisdiction. A peep into the decisions taken by it in its 6th meeting, held on March 17, 2204, clearly gives such an indication and establishes that the Shrine Board simply wanted to make the pilgrimage smooth and comfortable. It would be only desirable to reproduce here verbatim some of the decisions.
The decisions read: (A) “to provide better facilities to the yatris for yatra 2004; (B) “to provide comfortable and insulated pre-fabric accommodation with double-bunk beds, instead of tents, which are mostly found in tattered conditions”; (C) “to make all out efforts to provide hot water bathing at camp sites for pure drinking water, and increasing toilet points with modern technique of bacterial culture to avoid foul smell”; (D) “to do away with the existing nation-wide registration process which arbitrarily imposed quota for each state”; (E) “to take all crowd control measures on the lines of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, which conducts the yatra to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine); (F) “to introduce public sector helicopter service at Baltal/Domel-holy cave route”; (G) “to explore possibility of using bio-metric technology of identifying finger prints and face recognition as is the practice at Tirupati, the most visited pilgrimage”; and (H) “to send an expert team from DEFO-IIT Delhi and some private concerns dealing in refrigeration system to arrive at most viable solution for retaining the formation of lingam till the culmination of yatra”.
A scrutiny of the High Court judgment, which was delivered by Justice Permod Kohli on April 15, 2005, further shows that the Shrine Board had also planned to electrify the whole area used during the pilgrimage period by the devotees and others by setting up a micro-hydel project at Baltal and the cave and make provision for “accommodation for 2500 pilgrims for their night halt-age at cave”. Again, it shows that the Shrine Board had planned to construct road from Baltal to Sangam, start a cable car between Baltal and the cave, fence the camp site, provide “advance booking and current booking on the first come first served basis through internet”, open post offices and banks; tie up with “NGOs who have offered their services”, “mobilize social and religious organizations for financial assistance to the tune of Rs 20.00 crores for providing better facilities (to) the yatris”, and provide chopper service at cheaper rates with all technical and safety measures as per the civil aviation norms”.
All this should serve to demonstrate that the Shrine Board had never ever sought to usurp the authority of the state or overstep its authority. The Governor as chairman of the Shrine Board, in consultation with the Council members, was only taking steps designed to make the pilgrimage comfortable and creating adequate and suitable facilities for the pilgrims. The fact of the matter is that he acted as per the rules and guidelines laid down in unambiguous language by the Jamu and Kashmir Shri Amarnathji Shrine Aact (JKSASA). There was nothing that could even remotely suggest that the Governor took decisions unilaterally. Whatever he did in his capacity as chairman of the Board he did it by keeping the State Government well informed.
The present Governor, N N Vohra, would do well to imitate his predecessor and create an environment that ensures smooth Yatra. Confrontation between the Shrine Board and Shri Amarnath Yatri Nyas and other Hindu organizations is not in the interest of anyone. The ball is definitely in the court of the Governor. He simply has to take into confidence the Hindu organizations. The sooner he does the better.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
STOCK UPDATE |
|
|
 |
| BSE
Sensex |
 |
| NSE
Nifty |
|
|
| |
CRICKET UPDATE |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
