Lagatar24 Desk
Jammu, Jan 3: Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board has decided that bookings for the yatra to the shrine can only be done online. This decision has been taken after 12 pilgrims died in a stampede on Saturday, January 1.
Pilgrims completing the 13-kilometer trip can now acquire their yatra slips either online or when they arrive at Katra town. While just 2,000 daily yatra slips are distributed online on average, roughly 28,000 are given to pilgrims when they arrive in Katra, according to a Shrine Board official.
The decision to shift the bookings online was made at a meeting of the Board of Directors chaired by J&K Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, who also announced a payout of Rs 5 lakh for each of those who died on Saturday. This is in addition to the Rs 10 lakh ex-gratia announced on Saturday.
According to an official statement, the Board has directed its Chief Executive Officer Ramesh Kumar to take “urgent action on diverse fronts, including effective crowd management, augmentation of infrastructure, making booking of yatra 100 per cent through online mode, working out plans for decongestion of the entire track, particularly the Bhawan area, (and) separation of entry and exit routes at (the) Bhawan”.
Following the stampede, the shrine Board is unlikely to admit more than 25,000 daily pilgrims to the site, according to reports.
