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Team BJP meets PC with charter on Amarnath Yatra
BJP leaders on Tuesday complained to Home Minister P Chidambaram about a “systematic pattern” to reduce the duration of the Amarnath Yatra and urged him to “ensure” that Governor NN Vohra “honours the Hindu sentiments”. The Opposition party also sought reconstitution of the Sri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) “with inclusion of only those members that have aasthaa (faith and reverence) in Baba Amarnath”.
The Opposition party claimed there was absence of adequate medical and other facilities for pilgrims, which has caused as many as 97 deaths this year. Incidentally, the Supreme Court had taken suo motu cognisance of this situation and expressed shock over growing number of deaths. The apex court on July 20 had set up a committee to recommend measures to prevent the growing number of casualties among Amarnath pilgrims saying it has become a permanent problem and a regular affair.
“One of the major factors behind such a high increase in mortality this year is the yatra duration has been squeezed drastically from the usual 60 days (earlier it was for 120 days) to just 39 days,” reads the memorandum to Chidambaram by BJP leaders.
The delegation including Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, Rajiv Pratap Rudy and others demanded that the muhurt and duration of the yatra should be determined as per the Hindu astha and tradition, which speaks of the Yatra running throughout the year.
Swaraj said the situation had become more complicated because the queueing system made pilgrims to “suffer” between two and five days in high altitude areas in the midst of heavy rains and extremely cold weather.
Claiming there was no arrangement for the pilgrims to take shelter in case the weather goes rough, the BJP demanded that permanent and safe Yatra houses having a capacity to shelter 15-20 thousand yatris and equipped with all basic amenities should be put up at Pahalgam, Chandanvadi and Baltal.
BJP’s charter of demands for Amarnath yatris also include at least two hospitals with 200-bed capacities each at Baltal, Nunawar, and small hospitals at 4-5 other points on the yatra routes.
“As the hills and mountains at Tirupati and Mata Vaishno Devi have been designated as ‘Sacred Hills’ and ‘Sacred Mountains’, on similar lines the Amarnath Mount and the area surrounding it and also covering all possible conduits leading to it should be declared as Sacred Sri Amarnathji Area,” BJP leaded demanded.
Claiming that footfall on this Yatra route may even touch the 10 lakh number in the next 5 years, the BJP delegation demanded a Master Plan to be put in place to address the issues confronting the pilgrims.
BJP leaders on Tuesday complained to Home Minister P Chidambaram about a “systematic pattern” to reduce the duration of the Amarnath Yatra and urged him to “ensure” that Governor NN Vohra “honours the Hindu sentiments”. The Opposition party also sought reconstitution of the Sri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) “with inclusion of only those members that have aasthaa (faith and reverence) in Baba Amarnath”.
The Opposition party claimed there was absence of adequate medical and other facilities for pilgrims, which has caused as many as 97 deaths this year. Incidentally, the Supreme Court had taken suo motu cognisance of this situation and expressed shock over growing number of deaths. The apex court on July 20 had set up a committee to recommend measures to prevent the growing number of casualties among Amarnath pilgrims saying it has become a permanent problem and a regular affair.
“One of the major factors behind such a high increase in mortality this year is the yatra duration has been squeezed drastically from the usual 60 days (earlier it was for 120 days) to just 39 days,” reads the memorandum to Chidambaram by BJP leaders.
The delegation including Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, Rajiv Pratap Rudy and others demanded that the muhurt and duration of the yatra should be determined as per the Hindu astha and tradition, which speaks of the Yatra running throughout the year.
Swaraj said the situation had become more complicated because the queueing system made pilgrims to “suffer” between two and five days in high altitude areas in the midst of heavy rains and extremely cold weather.
Claiming there was no arrangement for the pilgrims to take shelter in case the weather goes rough, the BJP demanded that permanent and safe Yatra houses having a capacity to shelter 15-20 thousand yatris and equipped with all basic amenities should be put up at Pahalgam, Chandanvadi and Baltal.
BJP’s charter of demands for Amarnath yatris also include at least two hospitals with 200-bed capacities each at Baltal, Nunawar, and small hospitals at 4-5 other points on the yatra routes.
“As the hills and mountains at Tirupati and Mata Vaishno Devi have been designated as ‘Sacred Hills’ and ‘Sacred Mountains’, on similar lines the Amarnath Mount and the area surrounding it and also covering all possible conduits leading to it should be declared as Sacred Sri Amarnathji Area,” BJP leaded demanded.
Claiming that footfall on this Yatra route may even touch the 10 lakh number in the next 5 years, the BJP delegation demanded a Master Plan to be put in place to address the issues confronting the pilgrims.
