Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, May 17: Union Home Minister Amit Shah convened a high-level meeting on Tuesday to assess the security preparedness for the Amarnath Yatra, which will resume on June 30 after a gap of two-year.
The meeting came only days after Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla called a similar meeting to assess the annual pilgrimage’s security readiness. Bhalla has held two comparable sessions so far, one on May 13 in Delhi and the other on April 15 in Jammu and Kashmir.
Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, Intelligence Bureau Chief Arvind Kumar, CRPF Director General Kuldiep Singh, and Director General of Police Jammu and Kashmir are among those attending the meeting. In addition to this, Lieutenant General Rajeev Chaudhary, Director General of Border Roads Organisation (BRO), Dilbag Singh, and other officers from the Border Security Force (BSF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) were also present.
Delhi | Union Home Minister Amit Shah holds a high-level meeting to review preparations for Amarnath Yatra 2022 pic.twitter.com/g0OCxhOkYk
— ANI (@ANI) May 17, 2022
Meanwhile, members of the Amarnathji Shrine Board of Trustees joined the meeting through video conferencing.
According to the sources, Shah will be informed of security updates and the department of Central Armed Police Forces on specific areas during the pilgrimage, as well as the regional situation.
Notably, online registration for the Amarnath Yatra 2022 began on April 11, and the Home Ministry has already sanctioned over 50 CAPF companies to provide protection during the pilgrimage, with nearly three lakh pilgrims expected to visit the Amarnath cave shrine this year.
After consulting with Amarnathji Shrine Board members, the J-K administration decided to cancel the annual Amarnath pilgrimage in 2020 and 2021 owing to the current Covid-19 scenario.
