Vaishno Devi Yatra to resume from August 16 after 5 months of cancellationTop Stories

August 14, 2020 17:43
Vaishno Devi Yatra to resume from August 16 after 5 months of cancellation

(Image source from: amarujala.com)

The temple premises are being regularly sanitized and all the norms to be followed as precautionary measures are in place for the safety of pilgrims.

The Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine board has cancelled the yatra for over 5 months since the start of the pandemic as the country has imposed lockdown to deal with the pandemic. The Jammu and Kashmir administration announced that the yatra would be resumed from August 16 this year.

The Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine board had begun the preparations for reopening the shrine and the yatra months in advance. The famous temple where thousands of devotees gather every year is being sanitized regularly and all the safety norms to be followed are in place. The authorities are taking careful measures to curb the infection spread among the devotees.

The shrine is now all set to welcome pilgrims to the auspicious place and the administration has also set some guidelines for the pilgrims who will visit the shrine from August 16.

A maximum number of 500 devotees outside of Jammu and Kashmir would be allowed into the shrine in a graded manner. Registration of these devotees will only be made online in order to avoid the thronging near the ticket counters inside the temple premises.

Welcoming the decision to reopen the shrine, a Katra resident of Jammu and Kashmir said that he was delighted to hear the news as the employment in the temple will be back in place. Moreover, he also said that the Vaishno Devi Shrine board must allow more number of devotees into the temple premises if they produce a COVID-19 negative certificate to the temple authorities.

Recently, Amarnath Yatra which is set to begin in the month of August is cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, the administration has made available the virtual darshan feature for all the devotees across the world. Notable, this is the first time in the history where Amarnath Yatra has been canceled.

Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday reported 536 new COVID-19 positive cases taking the Union Territory’s tally of COVID-19 cases to 26,969 as on August 13, 2020. 11 new deaths were reported in Jammu and Kashmir in the last 24 hours taking the death toll in the UT to 509.

A statement released by the Information and Public Relations Department said that out of the 538 new cases reported on Thursday in the UT 98 were from Jammu division and 438 were from Kashmir.

The total number of active coronavirus cases in the UT stands at 7,138 out of which 1700 are from Jammu and the remaining from the Kashmir division.

By Gayatri Yellayi

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Vaishno Devi Yatra  COVID-19  August 16