SRINAGAR: The Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, which manages the annual Hindu pilgrimage to the cave shrine deep in Kashmir Himalayas, has succumbed to the huge inflow of unregistered pilgrims.
It has set up new registration counters in the valley to accommodate them.
The Amarnath pilgrimage or yatra is one of the holiest for Hindus and draws hundreds of thousands of devotees from across the country every year.
But on Friday, the police had to use force to drive away nearly 12,000 devotees who did not carry valid passes to visit the shrine.
The SASB had warned that pilgrims without a valid registration will not be allowed to go on the pilgrimage skirting icy streams and glacier-fed lakes and winding through dense pine forests.
This was one of the measures that the Board took in view of the Supreme Court directions last year that the number of pilgrims visiting the shrine had to be regulated.
“In view of the significant number of unregistered pilgrims and pilgrims who have arrived ahead of their scheduled date of Yatra…have established seven counters each at Pantha Chowk, Srinagar, and Tourist Reception Centre (TRC), Nowgam, Srinagar, to facilitate such Yatris to obtain registration before they can proceed to the Yatra Base Camps,” a statement by the SASB said.
“All the Yatris are advised to obtain registration for the date on which they wish to undertake the Yatra beforehand to avoid unnecessary difficulties and inconvenience to themselves as well as the Administration.”
The statement said that this facility would be in addition to the current registration arrangement available to Yatris at various locations in Jammu i.e. Vaishnavi Dham, Saraswati Dham, Jammu Haat and Ram Mandir.
The yatra that began yesterday is scheduled to last 55 days before it ends on Hindu festival Raksha Bandhan.
Today, the second day, 11530 pilgrims visited the cave shrine through the Chandenwari base camp in south Kashmir and also through Baltal base camp in Sonamarg.
