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| 'Extend yatra period to avoid risking lives of Amarnath pilgrims' | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, July 6: keeping in view the heavy inflow of the pilgrims to the holy cave of Amarnath, just after the start of the holy pilgrimage from June 25, many of pilgrims and some BJP leaders favour longer duration for the annual yatra in order to enable more pilgrims to make it to shrine situated in South Kashmir and not to violate the verdict of Sen Gupta commission.
Apart from the pilgrims, the BJP leaders, including Ashok Khajuria, urged the concerned Board i.e. SASB and state government to allow yatra for a longer duration so that huge rush is decongested and to accommodate a large number of pilgrims who in other case are forced to drop their plan to undertake the pilgrimage.
BJP leaders said even if the Government reports are relied on about two lakh yatris have so far visited the holy during the last 10 days and it means that about 20,000 yatris are making it to the holy shrine each day which could be a violation of the Sen Gupta committee report that has recommended that not more than 5000 to 7,000 pilgrims should be allowed to move from Chandanwari to the mountain cave route per day.
Blaming the Governor, N N Vohra,who is chairman of the Amarnath Shrine Board for having buckled under the pressure from the NC led Government for restricting the yatra period to three weeks, number of leaders belonging to BJP, Shiv Sena and Bajrang Dal said if the Shrine Board and the Government wanted to ensure the safety of the pilgrims they should extend the duration of the annual yatra to two months and even more so that there was no stampede near the holy cave.
They said the earnings from pilgrim tourism in Jammu and Kashmir have exceeded the revenue got from excursionists and holidayers visiting Kashmir. They said when the pilgrims to Vaishnov Devi have crossed 50 lakh per year and pilgrims to Holy Amarnath cavetoo have touched three to five lakh giving a chance to hoteliers, houseboat owners, transporters, porters and ponywallas earn their livelihood and as such it was unfortunate if the yatra period was curtailed.
These leaders predicted that over seven lakh yat ris would visit Amarnath cave if the yatra period was extended to 70 days. |
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