L-G Manoj Sinha flags off 1st batch of Amarnath pilgrims from Jammu

Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Wednesday morning flagged off the first batch of pilgrims for the annual Amarnath Yatra from the Bhagwati Nagar base camp in the Jammu city for their onward journey to the Pahalgam and Baltal base camps in KashmirThe 43day pilgrimage to the cave shrine will begin from twin base camps in Kashmir on Thursday and will conclude on August 11 on the occasion of Raksha BandhanThe annual Amarnath Yatra is being organised after a gap of two years due to the Covid pandemicAmid chants of Bam Bam Bhole and Jai Barfani Baba ki the pilgrims left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp here in a convoy of vehicles amid tight security arrangementsFlanked by political leaders and officials including Jammu Mayor Chander Mohan Gupta BJP leader Devender Rana and Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Mehta the lieutenant governor flagged off the convoy of buses and other vehicles carrying pilgrims on their inward journey to the twin basecamps in KashmirThe pilgrimage has been begun from Jammu The convoy flagged off by the LG has left for Kashmir from here Jammu Mayor Chander Mohan Gupta told reportersHe said all arrangements have been made to provide comfort to the pilgrimsDaleep Singh a devotee from Barmer in Rajasthan said There is no fear no threat only unbridled passion to reach the cave shrine quickly and have a glimpse of Lord ShivaAsha Devi who is a part of an over 40member group of pilgrims from Kanpur said We urge people from all over the country to come and pay obeisance at the cave shrineMultitier security arrangements have been put in place in and around the base camps lodging registration and token centres with the deployment of over 5000 security personnel in the Jammu city officials saidThe yatra will commence on June 30 from the traditional 48km Nunwan route in south Kashmirs Pahalgam and the 14km Baltal route in central Kashmirs GanderbalAccording to officials over three lakh pilgrims have registered so far for the annual Amarnath YatraThis year the government has introduced a Radio Frequency Identification to track the movement and wellbeing of the pilgrims they saidAdequate security measure has been put in place for the base camps and lodging places in the Jammu city Security is a major challenge Jammu Senior Superintendent of Police Chandan Kohli saidPolice have issued special stickers for vehicles ferrying pilgrims No vehicle without the sticker will be allowed to proceed towards the cave shrine officials saidOver 342 lakh pilgrims had paid obeisance at the shrine from July 1 to August 1 2019 before the government cancelled the pilgrimage midway ahead of the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union territoriesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever