Chairman of the Amarnath Shrine Board, Governor NN Vohra announced ex-gratia relief of Rs 3 lakh each to the next of kin of 5 yatris who died due to shooting stones on Baltal-holy cave route and 3 cases of deaths in road accidents. This was announced during a review meeting held with Umang Narula, CEO of the Shrine Board today.
CEO informed the Governor that during June 28 to July 11, twenty Yatris had died enroute to Holy Cave. In addition, two Service Providers also died, thereby raising the death toll to 22. Out of 22 persons, 14 persons died due to medical reasons and 8 pilgrims died in accidents at different locations. The mortal remains of 17 deceased Yatris and 1 Service Provider were transported by air to nearest to their homes airports in Bihar, West Bengal, Hyderabad, Gujarat and New Delhi.
The bodies of 3 deceased Yatris and one Service Provider were transported by road to their native places. The Board has also borne the cost of travel of one person who will escort the mortal remains of the deceased pilgrim to his/her home town.
As on July 11, the Board had paid Rs 24 lakh as ex-gratia and spent about Rs 5 lakh on account of transportation cost of the mortal remains of deceased Yatris to their home towns along with one attendant.
Expressing grief over the unfortunate deaths of the pilgrims, the Governor conveyed his condolences to the bereaved families and issued instructions to CEO to provide immediate relief of Rs. 3.00 lakh in favour of the next of kin every Yatri who died in an accident.
Injured Yatris who require specialized treatment are being provided necessary care at Sher-I-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura. The cost of such treatment is borne by the Shrine Board. As on 12th July 2018, 69 Yatris had been admitted to SKIMS out of whom 58 have been discharged and the rest are still under treatment.