New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday took a detailed review of the preparations being made for a smooth conduct of the upcoming Amarnath pilgrimage in Jammu and Kashmir, sources said.
The 62-day-long annual pilgrimage to the cave shrine of Amarnath, located at a height of 3,880 metres in the south Kashmir Himalayas, will begin on July 1 and continue till August 31.
Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, the Army’s Northern Command chief Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, Director of Intelligence Bureau Tapan Deka were among the top functionaries who attended the meeting.
The home minister reviewed the preparations for the Amarnath pilgrimage with top officials of the central government, Army and the Jammu and Kashmir administration, the sources said.
Shah also took stock of the plans being formulated to ensure foolproof security for the pilgrimage, they said.
The Minister said that it is the priority of the government that Amarnath pilgrims should have comfortable darshan and should not face any difficulty, a statement issued by PIB said.
It said that Shah directed to make adequate security arrangements on the entire route of Shri Amarnath Yatra and stressed on providing smooth arrangements on the route from the airport and railway station to the yatra base camp. He directed to provide air service from Srinagar and Jammu at night for the convenience of the pilgrims.
The minister directed to ensure adequate stock of oxygen cylinders and their refilling. He also asked for availability of additional teams of doctors. Home Minister also directed for adequate number of medical beds and deployment of ambulances and helicopters to meet any medical emergency, said the statement.
He gave instructions to make proper arrangements for all necessary facilities for Amarnath Yatris, including travel, stay, electricity, water, communication and health. He directed to ensure better communication system on the yatra route and deployment of machines to immediately open route in case of a landslide.
The statement further said that during the meeting, it was apprised that all the pilgrims of Shri Amarnath Yatra will be given RFID cards so that their realtime location can be traced. Rs. 5 lakh insurance for each Amarnath Yatri and Rs 50,000 for each animal will be done. Apart from this, arrangements for tent city, Wi-Fi hotspots and proper lighting will be made on the travel route. Additionally, Online- live Darshan of Baba Barfani, live telecast of morning and evening aarti in holy Amarnath cave and religious and cultural programs will be organized at the base camp.
According to the sources, “there have been intelligence inputs that Pakistan-based terrorist groups may try to disrupt the pilgrimage”.
All stakeholders of the pilgrimage have taken part in the meeting and all issues relating to arrangements being made for it have been discussed.
Last year, 3.45 lakh people visited the holy cave and this year, the figure could go up to 5 lakh, they said.
The sources said that to avoid any incident like last year’s flash flood which claimed 16 lives near the shrine, the National Disaster Response Force has started identifying ideal locations for setting up pilgrim camps keeping in mind any possible unforeseen natural disaster.
Indian Air Force helicopters are expected to be deployed to carry out aerial sorties in the upper reaches of the holy cave to check for glacial events and the formation of lakes that may trigger flash floods downhill.
Last year, such sorties were conducted only after the flash floods occurred in June, but this year, the exercise will be undertaken before the start of the pilgrimage and at continuous intervals during the two-month Yatra, the sources said.
The aerial surveys may be conducted by a team with expertise in remote sensing and satellite, hydrology and disaster response. Once a dangerous water build-up is spotted, contingency measures will be taken all along the pilgrimage route, especially in the areas near the cave shrine, they added.
Recently, a lot of snow has been found along both the tracks – Baltal and Pahalgam – leading to the holy cave and therefore the Border Roads Organisation has been given the task to clear the snow by June 15, the sources said.
