NGT ISSUES ORDER FOR CONFINING THE DEVOTEES’ NUMBER TO 50000 AT time at Vaishno Devi Shrine

There is lot of hue and cry over the recent decision of the National Green Tribunal putting curb on the infinite number of visitors going for Goddess Vaishno Devi Darshan by issuing directives to curb the number of regular visitors to fifty thousand at a time instead of myriad number of devotees thronging at the historical spiritual Shrine considered extremely pious and miraculous by billions of HINDUS globally.

Even the emperor of India Jalalludin Akbar three centuries ago visited Godess Vaishnodevi Dham bare footed and presented a magnificient silver CHATRA in reverence to the Godess after he heard tales of the miracles of Godess Durga stationed here. In its order the NGT has issued number of directives in order to improve and maintain the deteriorating environment in and around the Vaishno Devi Shrine vicinity and reducing the inconvenience of the devotees, the tribunal has asked the Vaishno Devi Shrine Board to apply brakes on the unaccounted number of devotees visiting here and confine it to 50000 numbers on Daily basis.

Orders have also been issued for maintaining cleanliness in the vicinity and the fine of Rs. 2000 fixed on anyone spittng or throwing rubbish in the open in KATRA township and else where , from where the YATRA from VAISHNO DEVI DHAM starts. The NGT has also issued orders for forthright ban on pony ferrying the devotees and instead has ordered for ferrying them in the battery operated vehicles till the shrine. It has in addition banned the future constructions in and around the Shrine areas till Katra.These orders are being implemented from today itself.

However there is lot of resentment among the devotees of Mata Vaishno Devi who’ve opposed this move of NGT, not entirely but a number confining order that confines the daily limit to only 50 thousand devotees asking the government in protest as to where would the remaining thousands of devotees go in view of the arbitrary ban. It may be recalled that bllions of people visit Vaishno Devi Shrine everyday and about 77 lakh devotees visited for Goddesse’s blessings in the year 2017.

SUNILNEGI