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| Pilgrims block NH at 3 places, pelt stones on Police | | Accuse administration of mismanagement, poor facilities | |
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, June 30: The annual pilgrimage of Amarnath cave shrine today began on chaotic note with hundreds of pilgrims upping in arms against the administration accusing it of "mismanagement" and "poor" arrangements.
The angry pilgrims also blocked Jammu-Srinagar National Highway at three places including Ramnagar Morh, Domail and Udhampur and disrupted vehicular movement for several hours.
Official sources said that the first batch of 1,272 pilgrims, which left Jammu base camp in the wee hours this morning, was stopped midway at Udhampur due to the tense situation prevailing in the Kashmir Valley.
Hundreds of pilgrims staged noisy protest against the administration and alleged that no arrangement for drinking water or eatables was made on National Highway.
"We left Jammu base camp at 5:00 a.m but the convoy was stopped several times and that too, for hours together firstly at Nagrota and now in Udhampur. There was no drinking water facility on National Highway and we have been subjected to several hardships," an agitating pilgrim lamented.
However, after halting temporarily for a few hours, the yatra was resumed in the evening.
Later, hundreds of pilgrims blocked the national highway outside Hari Niwas Palace for two hours and shouted anti-government slogans.
A convey of at least 25 vehicles including buses and cars carrying Amarnath pilgrims from outside the state, were stopped by the police at a 'Naka' outside Hari Niwas Palace at around 12:15 p.m as they were on their way to pilgrimage without proper registration and security cover.
They staged a sit-in there and chanted religious hymns. They also accused the administration of mismanagement.
On getting information, Randeep Kumar, Superintendent of Police (City) rushed to the spot and tried to pacify the agitating pilgrims. While requesting the agitating pilgrims to lift dharna and to allow traffic movement on the national highway, he said that "They cannot be allowed without proper formalities and registration since it would create confusion and chaos en route."
They were, however, allowed to leave for holy shrine of Vaishno Devi cautioning no vehicle would be allowed to proceed towards Udhampur.
Later in the evening, scores of pilgrims pelted stones of police personnel deployed at Domail check post after their vehicles were not allowed to proceed towards Udhampur. They also blocked the highway for about fifteen minutes.
However, police force tackled the situation aptly and pilgrims were allowed to go only after proper registrations from Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas.
Some of the pilgrims from Yatri Niwas also complained mismanagement and poor arrangements by the administration.
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