Farooq Ganai, News Agency of Kashmir
Jammu: Registration for the annual Amarnath Yatra in Jammu and Kashmir, commencing from June 18, started across the country on Friday. Around 472 pilgrims registered themselves on the first day, today.
The aspirant devotees can register themselves at 100 different branches of Jammu and Kashmir Bank across the country, General Manager JKB, R C Sharma, who is incharge registration, told News Agency of Kashmir adding the counters would be closed by end on July 30.
He said that the registration process for the annual pilgrimage has started and a total number of 2, 86,680 pilgrims would be registered across the country by the bank branches. “We registered 472 pilgrims today at our different branches”, he added.
He said in Jammu the Bank has set up a counter at exhibition ground for the registration which will remain open from 3 pm to 6 pm on week days and on Saturday from 1 pm to 4 pm. However the counters will remain closed on Sundays.
The pilgrims will get an insurance cover from Bajaj Alliance on payment of premium fixed and the same will be valid for Jammu-Srinagar and return to Jammu. “Each devotee will have pay rupees 24 and will cover only the route from Jammu to Amarnath and return to Jammu”, R C Sharma added
Referring to the quota fixed for the states as per the population, he said that 286680 devotees will include 12960 from Jammu and Kashmir. “We have to register 9000 pilgrims for Jammu, 1200 for Srinagar, 720 for Kathua, 480 for Rajouri, 480 for Poonch while 600 pilgrims would be registered from Udhampur”, he added.
He said UP has a maximum quota for being biggest state population wise and other states would also get the quota as per the population. “14400 pilgrims would be registered from Andhra Pradesh, 6000 from Bihar, 1440 Chandigarh, 1800 Chhatisgarh, 45000 Delhi, 120 Goa, 34800 Gujarat, 21000 Haryana, 2160 Himachal Pradesh, 1080 Karnataka, 240 Kerla, Maharashtra 22200, Madhya Pradesh 12000, West Bengal 4800, Rajasthan 6000, Punjab 29400, Uttranchal 1200, Tamil Naidu 1080 and Utter Pradesh 58200.