WSS Mata Vaishnodevi pilgrims

Governor, CM inaugurate WSS to fulfill demand of Mata Vaishnodevi pilgrims

 N. N. Vohra, Governor and Omar Abdullah, Chief Minister, nowadays jointly inaugurated Rs. 13.65 crore Water provide theme that lifts water from Pai Nallah, near Katra, and provides it to Adhkwari and Bhavan for meeting the necessities of the Shri Mata Vaishno Deviji pilgrims.

With the commissioning of this theme, the water provide has been augmented by six lakh gallons per day, of that four lakh gallons per day are going to be provided to Bhavan and a couple of lakh gallons to Adhkwari.

Inaugurating the theme at Nav Devian, Governor, who is that the Chairman of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, observed that the successful completion of this necessary theme is a superb example of the terribly shut coordination between the Shrine Board and therefore the State Government for providing satisfactory facilities and arrangements for the ever growing pilgrimage, that crossed the one crore mark last year.

The Governor observed that the choice to implement the Pai Nallah Water theme was taken at a gathering, stayed fifth September 2009, that was jointly chaired by the Governor and therefore the Chief Minister, where it had been determined that the overall price of the theme would be equally shared by the Shrine Board and therefore the State Government.

The Governor any observed that many alternative similar infrastructural comes, for meeting the necessities of the pilgrimage, have already been completed. He said that the Shrine Board includes a terribly vital stake within the planned and orderly development of the Katra city and every one its surrounding areas and, during this context, he has been having regular periodic conferences with the Chief Minister also like the opposite involved Ministers.

The Governor reiterated the requirement for the look and execution of further water provide schemes to fulfill the longer term needs of the Shrine and therefore the Katra space, each of that are growing at a quick pace. He additionally stressed the requirement for organised efforts for rain water harvesting and watershed programmes being implemented among given time frames. it's additionally necessary for the bottom water aquifers being recharged through massive scale plantation and greening of the world. He mentioned that the Shrine Board has been creating serious efforts during this regard and, within the past 3 years, over 2 lakh saplings have already been planted whereas an equal variety are planned to be place within the ground within the returning months.

The Chief Minister complimented the PHE Department for executing the Pai Nallah project in 2 and a 0.5 years against the initially targeted amount of 3 years. whereas underlining the importance for exploring all doable sources for the augmentation of water provide during this entire space, the Chief Minister informed that the govt. has already taken up another multi crore theme for augmenting the water provide to Katra city.

Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood management, Taj Mohi-ud-Din stated that the Pai Nallah theme, funded equally by the Shine Board and therefore the State Government, has concerned the laying of virtually twelve km of pipeline from the supply to the ultimate outlet. He stated that it's a six-stage theme that includes a thirty,000 GPH filtration plant at Nav Devian.

Amongst others the inauguration ceremony was attended by Nasir Aslam Wani, Minister of State for Home and PHE, Jugal Kishore, MLC, Baldev Raj Sharma, MLA Reasi, Jagjeevan Lal, former Minister, B. D. Sharma, Commissioner/ Secretary PHE, Dr. M. K. Bhandari, further Chief govt Officer, SMVDSB, B. R. Dogra, Chief Engineer, PHE and alternative senior officers of the State Government and therefore the Shrine Board.

Mata Vaishno Devi yatra may touch 1 cr

Vaishno Devi Post Office converted as Tourist Post Office

Jammu and Kashmir postal circle will be organizing 'India Post Gold coins festival' from 21 April 2012 in connection with Akshaya Tritya festival. John Samuel, Chief Post Master General said that during the Gold coin festival, Post Office will be offering 6 % discount to the customers. This will make the purchase of Gold coins very attractive. 

Mr Samuel said that Post offices at Gandhi Nagar, Jammu Tawi, Srinagar , Jawahar Nagar, Kathua and Udhampur are selling gold coins of 24 carat with 99.99 % purity in the denomination 0.5 g, 1 g, 5 g, 8 g, 10 g, 20 g and 50 g. The gold coins are manufactured by Valcambi from Switzerland and they are packed in a sealed cover with the certification from Valcambi, Switzerland. It has the benefits like internationally recognized certification, low risk of duplication, quality packaging, product standardization, numbering, and assayer certificate. 

As a part of the Gold coin festival, Chief Post master General announced that Gold coin sales will be extended to Janipur and R S Pura Post offices immediately. Further, in connection with Akshaya Tritya festival, Gandhi Nagar and Jammu Tawi Post offices will be kept open for the sale of Gold coins from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on 23 April and 24 April.

Akshaya Tritya Festival is falling on 24th April this year. Buying Gold is an important aspect of the day. Taking this into account, the Department has decided to offer 6 % discount on the purchase of gold coins effecting from 21 April 2012. India Post commenced the sale of Gold Coins manufactured by Valacambi, Switzerland initially with few post offices across the country. Today, the Gold Coins are available through more than 800 post offices across the country. 

Mr Samuel informed that Vaishno Devi Post Office has been made into Tourist Post Office and in this regard, a special cover was released by Suneeta Trivedi, Member Postal Services Board, Govt. of India at Katra. Post Shop has been established and items of utility like Flat Rate Boxes, Packaging Material, Pictorial Cards, Philately Items etc. are available for sale at Vaishno Devi tourist post office. Further, pilgrims visiting the Post Office can get their letters post marked with pictorial postmark of Vaishno Devi. These covers with cancellation are available at Vaishno Devi Bhawan Post Office and at Gandhi Nagar Philately Bureau for sale.

Mata Vaishno Devi yatra may touch 1 cr

Vaishno Devi Yatra at Rise

Pilgrimage up by 12 lakh Vaishno Devi shrine

Vaishno Devi yatra crosses one crore in 2011

Natural Cave of Vaishno Devi Opened

Ragini performs in SaMaPa Festival

Sufi singer, Ragini Rainu mesmerised the audience with her performance on the seventh day of the ongoing SaMaPa Aalap Festival 2012 being presented by the Sopori Academy of Music and Performing Arts in collaboration with Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Board and Department of Tourism, J&K.

The concert was held at Government College for Women wherein Ragini presented various Qualams composed by Bhajan Sopori which commenced with Baba Farid’s "Subhan Allah".

She also explained the nuances of Sufi music to the students and made them sing various phrases of the Qualam.

Sarit Das accompanied Ragini Rainu on Tabla while Abid Hussain on Sarangi, Bua Ditta on Harmonium and Kamal Sharma on Dholak. Ragini presented the Sufiana Gharana of Kashmir.

Padamshri Vidushi Sumitra Guha also gave performance wherein she commenced her recital with Raga Vrindavan Sarang presenting a traditional Bandish "Na Bolo Shyam Hamre Sang" im Madhyalaya Teentaal.

She also showed the shades of Raga Shudh Sarang to the students and concluded the recital with a Bhajan of Kabir in Raga Kirwani.

Vidushi was accompanied by Sarit Das on Tabla, Abid Hussain on Sarangi and Padmaja Chakraborty on Harmonium.

Earlier, Abhay Rustam Sopori spoke to the students about the essence of music and how to make a difference in life through music.

The programme commenced with the welcome address by Dr Seema Sharma. Students of Music Department namely Sujata, Akash Priya, Kiran, Jyoti and others presented Saraswati Vandana.

The proceedings were conducted by Amneet Kaur and Payal. Principal of the college, Prof Nalini Kohli was also present.

Natural Cave of Vaishno Devi Opened

Yatris take to old way of darshan at Vaishno Devi

After about an year, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board (SMVDSB) has opened natural and traditional old cave for pilgrims of the Goddess in view of decline in yatra rush due to harsh winter following snowfall and rains in Trikuta Hills for the past few days.

"This is nearly after a year that historic and natural cave of Mata Vaishno Devi ji has been thrown open for the pilgrims to reach sanctum sanctorum to have darshan of natural pindies of the Goddess'', SMVDSB Additional CEO Dr Mandeep K Bhandari said.

He added that the old cave is being opened for six hours (10 am to 4 pm) during the day time. However, the time can be extended depending upon rush of the yatris.

"If the rush remained below normal, the natural cave timings are extended but if it increased, the authorities closed the old cave and divert pilgrims to adjoining new cave for reaching the sanctum sanctorum'', Dr Bhandari said.

Yesterday, 12,000 pilgrims had darshan of Goddess Vaishno Devi amidst chilly weather conditions and rains. Today, about 9000 yatris left Katra, the base camp of the shrine, for the Bhawan.

Worthwhile to mention here that the Shrine Board had constructed two more caves leading to sanctum sanctorum, where three natural pindies of the Goddess are located. The traditional cave shrine was closed by the Board to reduce waiting for the pilgrims after number of yatris started picking up in nineties following take over of affairs of the shrine by the SMVDSB.

The old and traditional cave was opened for few days in January last year. This is exactly after a year that the natural cave has been opened for the yatris.

On an average, about 15,000 yatris have been visiting Mata Vaishno Devi Bhawan these days. The Bhawan, Bhairon Ghati, Sanji Chat and track up to Adh Kunwari had experienced snowfall few days back. It rained on the track and the Bhawan throughout the day today.

Official sources said though the new track from Adh Kunwari to Bhawan was operational, the Shrine Board staff was keeping a watch on it since the route was prone to landslides. The track is closed for few hours during rains and re-opened for pilgrims later. However, the old route remained open as there was no threat of landslides on this track, they added.

The Shrine Board was constructing another alternate route exclusively for mules from near Katra to Adh-Kunwari. Work on this track was going on expeditiously and was expected to be completed in a year's time.

After completion of track, the pilgrims trekking to Mata Vaishno Devi Bhawan and the mules would have separate routes. The mules are not allowed on alternate track from Adh-Kunwari to Bhawan.

Last year 1.01 crore pilgrims had visited holy cave shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi ji, which was an a.ll time record. This year also, the Shrine Board was expecting similar or even more rush of pilgrims to the holy cave shrine.

Rush to Mata Vaishno Devi Bhawan generally picked up in the month of March when the winter and examination season is over.

Kud Dance highlight of Trikuta Hills Show

Presentation of traditional ‘Kud Dance’ was the highlight of fourth day’s ongoing cultural show of Trikuta Hills organised by Shri Mata Vaishno Dev Shrine Board at its state of art world class auditorium at Spiritual Growth Centre, Katra. Performances of such a kind of rarest traditional artistic expressions has been organised by Natrang Jammu under the direction of Balwant Thakur for Shree Mata Vaishno Devi  Shrine Board, the programme aims at showcasing the priceless cultural heritage of the hills of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi for the visiting pilgrims at Katra which has already crossed the one crore mark this year.

‘Kud’ is one of the most popular dance form of the hills of Shri Mata Vaishno  Devi. Primarily performed by men folk this ritualistic dance is performed to please the local deities. People have a belief that during village celebrations and rituals which are organised in the honour of local deities whole men folk perform  ‘Kud’ and missing the same  may annoy the local deity which no one can afford to do. For centuries this wonderful tradition of dance survived in the same fashion and later it started to be performed  in other festivities like marriages, child birth, crop cutting etc. In Trikuta Hills there are three different styles of Kud presentations. One comes from Panjar, another from Sujjandhar and the third comes from Bakkal. Friday’s style of Kud came from village Bakkal of Reasi District which was performed by the artists of Hari Saran Cultural Centre, Bakkal. Laced with the traditional instruments like flute and drums, the artists of Kud who gave remarkable performances included Baldev Raj Sharma, Shaftan Singh, Balwant Singh, Dhani Ram, Balwan Singh and Balwant Raj.

Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board is organising daily four shows at 11:30 AM, 1:30 PM, 3: 30 PM and 5: 30 PM for the pilgrims and the local audiences and these programmes will continue till 5th of January, 2012.

Heavy rush to Vaishno Devi

Pilgrimage to holy cave shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi ji has gone up by 47,000 during first three months of this year as compared to 2010 while a heavy rush was witnessed during first Navratra as nearly 30,000 pilgrims turned up for darshan of the Goddess.

During first three months of 2011, 15.46 lakh pilgrims paid obeisance to Goddess Vaishno Devi as compared to 14.99 lakh, who had performed darshan during the similar period last year.

The yatra has gone up by 47,000 in the first three months, official sources said.

In the month of March, 7.55 lakh pilgrims visited the shrine of Goddess Vaishno Devi in Trikuta Hills. During March 2010, 7.22 lakh yatra was recorded. In the month of March alone, 33,000 increase was registered in the yatra.

Sources said 4,21,231 yatris had darshan of natural pindies of Goddess Vaishno Devi during January this year. The similar figure for previous year was 3,99,665. In February, the yatra came down slightly and stood at 3,69,755 as against 3,77,213 last year.

First Navratra witnessed heavy rush today with over 30,000 pilgrims leaving Katra, the base camp of the shrine, for Mata Vaishno Devi Bhawan. Authorities were expecting heavy rush to the shrine during the remaining Navratras.

Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board (SMVDSB) and police authorities have made elaborate arrangements for the pilgrims during Navratras. Security arrangements have also been beefed up at Katra and Vaishno Devi Bhawan.

SMVDSB Additional CEO Dr Mandeep K Bhandari besides DIG Udhampur-Reasi range Jagjit Kumar and SP Katra Shiv Kumar Sharma reviewed facilities for the pilgrims and security arrangements respectively.

During 2010, 87.2 lakh yatris had visited Mata Vaishno Devi Bhawan while the number in 2009 was 82 lakh. In 2008, 67.92 lakh yatra was recorded while the number was 74.17 lakh in 2007. The pilgrimage was down in 2008 due to Amarnath land row agitation.

Sources said even last year, the SMVDSB authorities were anticipating 9 million yatra to Mata Vaishno Devi shrine but the number remained slightly less due to three month unrest during summer in the Kashmir valley. The Valley unrest also had impact on the yatra to Vaishno Devi Bhawan.

This year the SMVDSB was expecting the pilgrimage to touch or cross 9 million if everything goes well. However, another spell of summer unrest in the Valley could have an impact on pilgrimage to Mata Vaishno Devi also.

The Shrine Board is bracing up to receive 1 crore pilgrims to Vaishno Devi shrine per annum in next couple of years. The facilities are being generated keeping in view the arrival of 10 million pilgrims to Mata Vaishno Devi shrine.

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