UNPRECEDENTED AMARNATH YATRA
As it was well observed by the administration that this year Shri Amarnath Yatra will witness record number of participation of devotees from all over the country, in the the last five days, more than 30,000 pilgrims left from the Jammu base camp to the holy cave situated in the Himalayas of South Kashmir and nearly 45000 have performed darshan at the shrine. Kudos to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board headed by the Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha for the arrangements and facilities related to pilgrims are put in place. Either health, boarding and lodging, transportation, hospitality or above all the security concerns all are upto the mark to facilitate the smooth journey of the pilgrims. The claim of the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha that adequate arrangements have been made for the Amarnath Yatra as the administration was expecting a heavy footfall of the pilgrims was undoubtedly proved true within the first five days of the pilgrimage with unprecedented rush of pilgrims reaching the Shrine amidst the chants of Bam Bam Bhole. To facilitate the smooth journey for the first time chopper facility was also introduced from Srinagar to Panchtarni that has further added to the swelling number of pilgrims for Shri Amarnath Yatra that started on June 30 and will conclude on August 11 on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan. With more than 45,000 people having Darshan at Amarnath Cave so far, the Jammu and Kashmir government added another feather to its cap by starting an online Darshan for the people by paying a certain amount and getting the Pooja and Hawan done besides getting Prasad delivered at their doorsteps. The services can be booked on the website of the Amarnathji Shrine Board (www.shriamarnathjishrine.com), which was initiated with personal efforts of Chief Executive Officer of Shri Amarnath Ji Shrine Board Nitishwar Kumar. The devotees in the online service are allowed into a special virtual room wherein they have a special Darshan of Lord Shiva via the Jio meet application and the Postal Department will dispatch the Prasad in just 48 hours of Darshan and once registered, the link for Pooja and Darshan will be shared with the devotees. The online Darshan is being proved to be a blessing for those who cannot physically visit the cave. The Jammu and Kashmir administration after holding back to back deliberations with the Union Home Ministry headed by the stalwart Amit Shah before the start of the Yatra chalked out a well planned strategy for smooth and incident free conduct of the Yatra that started bearing fruits and by the end of 43 days long pilgrimage, it is expected that nearly 6 to 7 lakhs of devotees will pay obeisance at the cave shrine, which will be a record number. The yatra that remained suspended for almost three years from August 2019 to 2021 due to the revocation of Article 370 and then due to Covid pandemic, this year is expected to remain extraordinary for which the governments, both the J&K UT and the Centre has made outstanding initiatives to attract the pilgrims to the holy cave despite threats from the anti-national elements who were hellbent to disrupt the traditional annual two-month long fair that turns the economical graph for the Jammu and Kashmir with a boost in the pilgrimage tourism.