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Special prayers to mark beginning of Amarnath Yatra held in Jammu
The pilgrimage to the holy cave shrine in south Kashmir will be conducted from the shorter Baltal route only, sources said.
The top officials of Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) on Friday performed ‘pratham pooja’ here on the occasion of Jayestha Purnima, signifying the commencement of the annual pilgrimage.
During the chanting of Vedic mantras and havan, J&K L-G principal secretary and SASB CEO Bipul Pathak and SASB additional CEO A K Soni at Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Ashram were in presence.
The pooja was jointly organised by SASB and Baba Amarnath and Buda Amarnath Yatri Niyas.
“It signifies commencement of the annual pilgrimage to the cave shrine of Shri Amarnath. The yatra, however, shall begin on July 21 for a shorter duration of 14 days and end on August 3,” sources said.
The pilgrimage to the 3,880m-high holy cave shrine in south Kashmir will now be conducted from the shorter Baltal route only, they added.
While the Ganderbal deputy commissioner has already pressed men and machinery into clearing of the Baltal track, workers from the SASB will start leaving from Jammu on Monday for assisting in the track clearance and laying bailey bridges over streams.
The decision to cut-short the yatra was taken during a meeting held by J&K L-G GC Murmu last week.
The government had in February decided to hold the annual pilgrimage to the holy cave shrine.
The yatra was scheduled to begin from the twin tracks of Pahalgam in Anantnag district and Baltal in Ganderbal district on June 23. The pilgrimage was to end on August 3 on the day of Shravan Purnima (Raksha Bandhan).
Last year, the pilgrimage was cut short following intelligence inputs of terror threats ahead of the Centre scrapping Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. In 2018, the pilgrimage was held for 60 days.
