Weather-proof road must: Sri Sri
Art of Living guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has proposed a “weather-proof” road to Amarnath through shorter Baltal route to ensure smooth pilgrimage to the 12,729-foot-high cave-shrine in Kashmir Himalayas in future. “I’m requesting the state government to make a weather-proof road in Baltal so that in the coming years the yatra can be performed with greater safety and security,” he said in a signed statement issued from his office in Bengaluru.
The suggestion of constructing an all-weather road in the Baltal-Amarnath corridor as part of an ambitious plan of creating better infrastructure was first made by then Jammu and Kashmir governor Lt. Gen. (retired) S.K. Sinha during his stint as a chairman of the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB). But nothing was heard on the issue following the Amarnath land row pitted the two major components of the state’s population against one another, mainly due to mishandling of the issue in summer 2008. The statement which has been placed on Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s official website and was circulated here on Tuesday also by the state governor’s office seeks to clarify to the devotees that the SASB was eager to start the annual yatra in the first week of June, coinciding with Jyeshta Purnima, but the inclement weather and the fact that both the tracks to the cave-shrine continued to be snowbound made it impossible. “I would like to clarify to the Shiva Bhaktas who are eager to go to the Sri Amarnath Yatra that we sincerely wanted to keep the yatra from Jyeshta Purnima onwards,” he said.
He added, “There was no pressure from any individual or organization on us. It was purely a logistical challenge to ensure the safety of the yatris.”
The VHP and other likeminded groups which wanted the yatra be started on June 3 had alleged that the SASB and the state government curtailed the duration of the annual event under pressure from separatists.
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