Jammu: PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti wants the duration of Amarnath Yatra curtailed. She says thousands of pilgrims going to the holy cave each days is posing a threat to the fragile ecology of the region.
"Amarnath Yatra is going on for hundreds of years, but it used to be for a stipulated time span. We are saying that the numbers and timing of the Amarnath Yatra must be regulated on the pattern of Uttrakhand and Vaishno Devi," she says.
Mehbooba has written a letter to the J&K Governor, who is also the chairman of the Amarnath Shrine Board, asking that the pilgrimage be curtailed from its current two-month duration. But the BJP isn't impressed. The party says Mehbooba is endorsing the game plan of separatists.
"Earlier, the yatra used to be for not more than ten days, but now people have the resources and the will to spend the money and go for the yatra and stopping them won't be good," BJP leader Chaman Lal Gupta says.
Last year Amarnath land row gave ammunition to the political parties and this year also they are trying to cash in on the yatra issue. But clearly it's the yatris who are facing the uphill task of dealing with the harsh weather and still going ahead for the darshan and nobody seems to be talking about their problems.