The annual pilgrimage to the Holy Cave Shrine of Shri Amarnathji concluded today on Shravan Purnima amid chanting of religious hymns in the spiritual ambience of South Kashmir Himalayas. N. N. Vohra, Governor, who is Chairman of the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board, and Mr. Rakesh K. Gupta, Chief Executive Officer, visited the Cave Shrine early this morning. The Governor prayed for sustained peace, harmony, progress and prosperity in the State.After reviewing the functioning of the Shrine Yatra Camp where, unlike as in the past Yatras, the snow has still not melted, the Governor visited Panjtarni, Baltal, Sheshnag and Nunwan Yatra Camps and held review meetings with the officers from Civil, Police, CPO, Army and the District Administrations of Ganderbal and Anantnag districts. The Governor expressed satisfaction over the smooth conduct of this year’s Yatra, despite serious constraints arising from the heavy snowfalls in the preceding months.
The Governor directed the CEO to ensure complete cleaning up of all Camp sites and to prepare a Camp and route-wise Action Plan for Yatra 2015, keeping in view the experiences gained during this year’s pilgrimage. He stressed that route-wise arrangements of all aspects of the Yatra must be worked out well in advance with particular focus on medicare, sanitation, cleanliness, water and power supply and other facilities and, side by side, ensuring effective protection of environment and ecology of the Yatra area. In this context, the Governor is chairing a Post Yatra Review Meeting on 13th August in which over a hundred officers will participate, who were concerned with the management of yatra 2014.
The Governor expressed serious concern over the loss of life of pilgrims due to medical reasons and accidents, during this year’s Yatra. In this context, in the Review Meetings held by the Governor at all the yatra Camps he held detailed discussions with the Medical officers and requested them to identify the preventive measures which could prevent loss of precious lives in future Yatras.The Governor asked the CEO to immediately launch a full scale post-Yatra sanitation drive, fully involving the Pahalgam and Sonamarg Development Authorities, so that the entire Yatra area is effectively cleaned up in the next few days.The CEO stated that over 3.72 lakh Yatris paid their obeisance at the Holy Cave Shrine during this year’s pilgrimage, which had commenced on 28th June, from the Baltal route and on 2nd July from the Pahalgam route. (KNS)