Norms prove nightmare for Amarnath pilgrims

This year is no different. The government has set up only eight registration counters across the country — at Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Calcutta, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jammu, Srinagar and Chennai. This means that people have to traverse long distances to get themselves registered for the pilgrimage. Subsequently, there is yet another struggle for reserving train tickets for the journey.

Says Bhanwar Lal, “We wanted to proceed to Jammu on August 3 but failed to get train reservation for the same dates. As reservations wereavailable in July, we decided to undertake the yatra earlier.”

M D Sabharwal narrates a similar story. He, along with his family, reached Jammu on July 5 thinking that they would be able to get themselves registered the following day. However, their plans didn’t materialise. “We were given July 12 as the date for the yatra and as a result, we have been staying back here for almost a week now,” says Sabharwal, who has come all the way from Jalandhar. He further suggests that the government should set up registration counters in all the states. However, authorities assert there is nothing wrong with the registration process. According to them, the government has decided to allow only 3,000 pilgrims per day during this year’s yatra — to avoid any inconvenience to pilgrims.

But sources allege that since the yatra started, the number of pilgrims hasn’t crossed the 2,000 mark.