At Baltal, preparations in full swing

Majid Jahangir
Tribune News Service
Baltal, June 26

Nestled in a narrow valley and surrounded by mountains, a group of volunteers are giving final touches to the arrangements for the Amarnath yatra.

A huge posse of security personnel are busy carrying out drills and checking the hi-tech surveillance equipment for any glitches. This is the Baltal base camp, where volunteers and security officials are making arrangements for the annual pilgrimage.

The 46-day Amarnath yatra will start on July 1 on Masik Shivratri as per the Hindu calendar and conclude on Shravan Purnima (Raksha Bandhan) on August 15. The Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board has decided that around 7,500 pilgrims will be allowed to trek on the two designated routes to the cave shrine every day.

More than 30,000 additional paramilitary forces would be deployed for the security of the yatra this year. Three-tier security arrangements have been made to ensure foolproof security of the pilgrims coming from various parts of the country.

Located 105 km from Srinagar, Baltal in Ganderbal district is one of the two traditional base camps for the yatra and is also the popular route to undertake the pilgrimage as it is shorter than the Nunwan base camp in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district.

“An elaborate security plan is in place to ensure a peaceful yatra,” said an official at the base camp.

“Given the unpredictable terrain and topography of the yatra route coupled with bad weather, a comprehensive contingency and disaster plan is also in place,” he said.

The template for the yatra arrangements was laid by former Governor NN Vohra.

The authorities would be using UAVs, CCTVs, barcode-enabled yatra slips and radio frequency identification tags  to keep an eye on the yatra.

5,000 pilgrims to be allowed each day

• Every day, 5,000 pilgrims will be allowed to trek to the shrine through the Baltal route
• Over 2,000 security personnel would be deployed for the Baltal base camp security

Rana demands toll exemption in Jammu 

Jammu: The National Conference has sought exemption of toll on all kinds of vehicles during the Amarnath yatra in the Jammu region on the pattern of the Valley. “There seems no justification for levying the tax at various toll posts from Lakhanpur to the base camps of Baltal and Pahalgam while exempting tax at a particular toll plaza,” Devender Singh Rana, NC provincial president, said in a statement issued here on Tuesday evening. He said the pilgrims coming from various parts of the country were required to pass several toll posts before entering the Valley. “Instead of taking a lopsided decision, the overall scenario should have been taken into consideration before ordering the exemption,” Rana said. TNS