Snow clearance operations on twin tracks of Pahalgam and Baltal have been launched in the areas, which had received less snowfall after a police team conducted a recee of Shri Amarnath ji cave shrine and returned successfully taking a clear picture of the track, the Bhawan and its surroundings.
A team of a dozen police personnel has undertaken a hazardous journey in snow clad mountains of Baltal route, falling in Ganderbal district of the Kashmir valley. The team took photographs of snow on the track and holy cave shrine of Shri Amarnath Ji in South Kashmir Himalayas and brought with them a "very clear picture’’ of the position of Baltal track, which is known as shorter route to the abode of Lord Shiva.
Holy Ice Lingam of Lord Shiva inside the cave shrine is in full bloom, according to the team members.
IGP Kashmir S M Sahai told the Excelsior that a police team of about a dozen police personnel from Ganderbal district undertook the brave task of trekking snow clad mountains to bring back a clear picture of the extent of snowfall and other problems enroute Baltal, Shri Amarnath cave shrine and its surroundings besides some area of Pahalgam track, they could trek.
"There has been a massive snowfall around Shri Amarnath ji shrine and both the tracks, much more than the last year. It would take a lot of time and require a lot of efforts to clear snowfall and make the tracks fit for pilgrimage’’, Mr Sahai said.
According to official sources, the Shiv Lingam was in full bloom inside the cave shrine. A three tier security arrangement has been proposed for the shrine involving Army, para-military and police. While Army would man the heights, para-military and police personnel would be deployed for security of pilgrims around the cave shrine and the twin tracks leading to the holy cave.
A final touch has been given to security arrangements. Deployment of Army, para-military and police personnel would start when the tracks are made fit for undertaking journey by the security jawans, sources said.
Most likely, the deployment of jawans and logistics support would start in first week of June and all arrangements for the pilgrims would be in place a week ahead of the start of yatra on June 29, they added.
According to sources, snow clearance operations have been initiated on both the tracks in the areas where snow accumulation was less. However, there were areas where snow accumulation was very high and clearance operations could take time. Snow has also started melting in some areas and authorities hoped that a good weather in next few days would further lead to melting of snow.
Jammu and Kashmir Police had sought 65 additional companies of para-military from the Union Home Ministry for deployment for security of Amarnath ji pilgrims. The Union Home Ministry has agreed to the proposal.
Registration of pilgrims for the yatra has already touched 1.34 lakh for both tracks of Pahalgam and Baltal. The registration is being done through 121 designated branches of Jammu and Kashmir Bank across the country besides some branches of Yes Bank and Co-operative Banks.
While 70, 565 yatris have been registered for Pahalgam route, 63,610 have opted Baltal route. About 1.07 lakh yatris have registered themselves through bank counters while 26, 630 were registered via internet.
Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) was likely to register nearly 4 lakh pilgrims for 45 days long annual pilgrimage this year, beginning June 29. The yatra would culminate on August 13 coinciding with Raksha Bandhan and Shrawan Purnima.
The SASB, which managed the yatra, has geared up its entire men and machinery for making the track fit for pilgrimage and providing space for langars, installation of mobile towers, toilets and other facilities for the pilgrims on both the tracks and other places.
No comments:
Post a Comment