First day of Amarnath Yatra: Police personnel deployed at every 5 steps, arrangements like luxury hotels in langars distributing free food

The Amarnath Yatra started from Baltal and Pahalgam on Thursday morning with Vedic chants and Har Har Mahadev cheers. There are 4,890 devotees in the first batch. All of them had left for here from Jammu base camp on Wednesday morning and reached late in the night.

Special arrangements have been made here for the devotees. Langar committees are the busiest. His workers are cleaning vegetables in icy water and on the other hand, the cook is preparing them and serving it to the devotees. The arrangements in the langars serving free food are like a luxury hotel. Tight security arrangements have been made during the Yatra. Police personnel is deployed every 5 steps. People are preferring to go through the long route of Pahalgam, while the path of Baltal is short, but the crowd is less visible here.

Food for one lakh people every day

All these langars will cook food for one lakh people every day. Devotees, security forces personnel as well as administrative employees also eat food in these langars. In this way, this travel route turns into the country's largest collective kitchen. Ration and LPG cylinders have been stored on a large scale at the base camp to keep the stove running for 24 hours.

This time fast food and fried food will not be available in the langar

Rajkumar Kavi, who came from Jalandhar to anchor, told that the crowd started on Wednesday evening itself and it will increase with each passing day. He said- 'I have been anchoring here for 23 years. Excited to be back here after two years and feel blessed. We came here on June 16 and it rained heavily for three days. In such a situation, a lot of hard work had to be done in setting up the infrastructure of the langar.

Rajkumar has brought 7 trucks of essential commodities to run his Bhandara for the next one and a half months. They have a team of 50 people with them. Regarding the strict guidelines of the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, Rajkumar said that this year he had to change everything. Earlier we used to serve a lot of dishes, but this year there is a ban on all fried items and fast food. Though we are disappointed, it is good for the pilgrims. We are making dal-rice, dal-roti, roomali-roti, tandoori-roti, lentil dishes, and green vegetables.

Rajendra Singh Samant of Shiv-Parvati Seva Dal (Chandigarh) has anchored in Domel here for the 16th year. He says- 'This time the facilities are much better here. Water, electricity, and mobile signals are running. New roads have also been built, and they have also been widened. Street lights have been installed on the entire route for the convenience of the devotees.

Safai Karamcharis will work on the travel route in three shifts

Some langar committees have also brought autorickshaws this time for the convenience of the pilgrims. Saving this environmentally sensitive area is a big challenge for the Shrine Board. NS Jamwal, director of Baltal Base Cap, says that in three shifts, the cleaning workers will continue to work on the travel route. 21 stationary and 700 mobile toilets have been built on the route. 200 dustbins have been placed between Baltal and Domel. The solid and wet waste will be disposed of. For this 350 employees have been deployed.

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