Security arrangements for the forthcoming annual Amarnath Yatra in Jammu and Kashmir have been scaled up, with authorities deciding to issue a ‘barcode’-enabled authority slip to pilgrims to keep a track of the actual number of people travelling to and from the cave shrine.
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), that is tasked asthe primary force to secure the pilgrimage that faces militant threats, willdeploy an enhanced number of upgraded electromagnetic chips or RFID(radio-frequency identification) tags on vehicles that will transport pilgrimsand other civilians associated with the yatra.
The Centre has decided to deploy about 40,000 centralparamilitary and state police personnel to secure the 46-day yatra that beginson July 1 from the twin route — traditional Pahalgam track in Anantnagdistrict and shortest Baltal track in Ganderbal district.
It will conclude on August 15, the day Raksha Bandhan willbe celebrated in the country.
Out of total number of forces, about 32,000 are specificallymeant to guard the pilgrimage to the 3,880 metre high cave shrine of Amarnathin south Kashmir Himalayas.
“We will be doing a pilot project this time andAmarnath pilgrims will be issued barcoded yatra slips. This will help us inascertaining the exact number of pilgrims who are on the move and will alsohelp in the ensuring an overall better security setup,” CRPF DirectorGeneral (DG) R R Bhatnagar told PTI here.
The DG said the shrine board authorities and securityagencies have prepared a “detailed plan” to ensure that all pilgrimswho register for the yatra are given the barcoded authority slips that willcontain their vital details, photographs and contact numbers.
All security challenges will be taken care of and any inputor concern vis-a-vis security will be worked upon by all the stakeholders inthe state government and the Centre, Bhatnagar said.
A senior official based in Kashmir said the yatra slips willbe triplicate, one each for the shrine board, pilgrim and for handing over to thechecking staff on route.
There will be access control checking gadgets that will bedeployed both at the Pahalgam and Baltal routes, he said. The barcode willcapture all the information of a pilgrim and it can be accessed by a click ofthe mouse, the official said.
The CRPF has also procured upgraded RFID tags and will useto mark the civilian vehicles plying on the yatra route. This technology toolwas used for the first time during the yatra last year and thousands of theseelectromagnetic chips were put on the vehicles.
Keeping in the mind the security challenges that emergedafter the February 14 Pulwama attack, the CRPF has also deployed an enhancednumber of its counter-IED teams that will sweep roads and vehicles against suchthreats.While 300 companies of central forces have beenasked to stay put in Kashmir valley after the Lok Sabha elections, about 16 arebeing sent in now, the official said.