High-level security review held for forthcoming Amarnath Yatra

A high level meeting was held here on Wednesday to review security and other related arrangements for the Amarnath Yatra, which is scheduled to commence July 2 simultaneously from both the Baltal and the Chandanwari routes.

Director General of Police (DGP) K. Rajendra Kumar chaired the meeting which was attended by senior police, central paramilitary forces and intelligence officers.

During the meeting, officers from different wings of the state police and other security forces made detailed presentations with regard to deployment plans, security, and traffic and other arrangements.

Detailed discussions were held to determine the broad approach regarding preparedness for arising emergent and unforeseen situations, functioning of the joint control rooms in the yatra camps and disaster management procedures.

Deployment of dog squads and mountain rescue teams at identified locations on both the yatra routes was also discussed.

The DGP stressed on coordinated security arrangements and effective deployment, and asked for supervision and monitoring through joint control rooms established at different identified locations on both the routes.

He said that access control and installation of X-ray scanning at appropriate locations is necessary to ensure effective functioning of planned security related arrangements.

Deployment of mountain rescue teams should be ensured to make the security plan more effective, said Rajendra Kumar.

Stressing strict enforcement of effective traffic management from Lakhanpur to the holy cave including base camps at Baltal and Nunwan, he said that effective regulation should be ensured to avoid traffic jams, which causes inconvenience to both the pilgrims and the general public.

The police chief also stressed the vital importance of coordination among functionaries of all security agencies for ensuring the effective functioning of the planned security arrangements, and that a thorough review of all required arrangements for promptly dealing with any arising disaster situation be undertaken.

DGP emphasized the need to enforce agreed systems for ensuring that only those pilgrims who possessed valid yatra permits were allowed to undertake the yatra on the date and by the route for which they had procured prior registration.