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| 'Lack of coordination' in concerned deptts leads to chaos, jams on NH | | Amarnath Yatra begins of 'peaceful note' | |
Early Times Report
Jammu, June 28: Even as the annual Amarnath Yatra today commenced on a peaceful and smooth note with first batch leaving for darshans in the holy cave of Lord Shiva, lack of coordination between various concerned departments led to chaos en route National Highway on the first day of pilgrimage.
The pilgrims upbeat with religious fervour left from Jammu base camp Bhagwati Nagar after Tourism Minister Nawang Rigzin Jora flagged off their first batch early this morning. But this enthusiasm was dampened soon after they covered a stretch of few hours. Nearly 3000 pilgrims of Amarnath Yatra after offering prayers in left in different kinds of vehicles only to get stuck up in heavy traffic jams.
According to sources, the cavalcade of vehicles which were interspersed with convoys of security faced frequent hiccups and brakes in forward movement as almost entire highway witnessed traffic jams which could not be cleared for long durations. At some places the vehicles remained stranded in jams for nearly half a kilometer stretch, much to inconvenience of women and children in particular. Even though slogans of 'Bum Bum Boley…..' kept the spirit but the heat and humidity along the hilly, mountainous terrains while they remained stuck in jams saw break in the momentum and religious spirit, said the sources.
Contrary to the government claims of all arrangements having been put in place for smooth conduct of Yatra, the first day witnessed many other hiccups which were seen apparently due to lack of coordination between various departments, eyewitness accounts from the Highway said. Ironically,the police and civil administration made elaborate arrangements and received the pilgrims with warm welcome upon their arrival on Monday in Jammu. But this was not seen at least on the Highway where chaos and haphazardness prevailed on various accounts.
Even though Road opening party (of security forces)for smooth passage was put in place besides adequate deployment of security along the entire route, traffic mismanagement marred the smooth flow at key points which was aggravated due to heavy vehicular traffic from both ends of highway.One more factor which added to chaotic conditions and traffic snarls was that langars and bhandaras were allowed to be operated anywhere and everywhere. The vehicles carrying pilgrims stopped at these langar points where there was no space for parking nor any other stoppage facility for the pilgrims.
"The authorities in administration , police and traffic departments perhaps did not envisage this kind of choking of the vehicles……..they failed to take into account the heavy rush of tourists on the Highway who are either rushing to Kashmir on holiday trip or coming back in huge numbers……", said one of the officials of Health Department on duty en route National Highway. The rush from both the sides is so heavy that even the concerned departments failed to cope , he said. The need, he said is to allow restricted movement or movement in alternate pattern after every fixed duration, at least during the period of Yatra to allow smooth passage of the vehicles, he added.
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