Ahead of the beginning of the 42-day long Amarnath yatra from June 30, the Union Territory administration has geared up its entire machinery along with different security agencies to ensure peaceful conduct of the yatra.
A mock drill was organized under the supervision of Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd) and Major Gen Sudhir Bahl (Retd) to test the disaster preparedness and improvise the response strategy where required.
The mock Drill was conducted by the Department of Disaster Management in collaboration with National Disaster Management Authority and District Disaster Management Authorities from June 22 to 23rd.
The exercise was conducted to assess the overall preparedness and response measures taken at critical sites to deal with any untoward incident by all the concerned government and private agencies on both the routes of Shri Amarnath Ji Yatra from Sonamarg to Holy Cave and Pahalgam to Chandanwari route.
During the mock drill, several scenarios including fire incidents, terrorist attacks, vehicular accidents and stampede were simulated. The simulations were held at Nunwan Base camp and in adjacent areas.
Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Anantnag, Ghulam Hassan Sheikh who was present on the occasion said that response strategies for these mock scenarios have been discussed threadbare and any gap areas identified have been addressed.
He said that the mock exercise has been very fruitful in ensuring that all stakeholders are well versed with their responsibilities. He said that the exercise has been instrumental in ensuring interdepartmental coordination.
Officials from National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Rashtriya Rifles, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Army, Police, Health Dept, Civil Defence, Transport, Fire & Emergency Services and other emergency services attended the mock exercises.
MS Bhatia, IG Kashmir OPS, Sector CRPF also took stock of the security deployment to ensure peaceful pilgrimage. Briefing the media, IG CRPF said," Amarnath Yatra is going to resume after a gap of 2 years. CRPF has an important role to play in the security of the devotees.
All security measures have been taken in order to conduct the Amarnath Yatra peacefully. The Union Home Ministry had earlier rushed around 350 companies of the central paramilitary forces for yatra duty. In Jammu, Divisional Commissioner Ramesh Kumar Thursday visited the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway near Samroli to take stock of the ongoing restoration work to clear the massive landslides/mudslides. Due to disruption of traffic on the highway, a large number of supply trucks and passenger vehicles have been stranded.
Meanwhile, Additional Director General of BSF (Western Command) PV Ramasastry also reviewed preparations of Shri Amarnathji yatra. He was briefed by IG Jammu frontier DK Boora about the prevailing security scenario in the region. ADG BSF also visited Samba and Kathua borders to review the operational preparedness of field formations.
During his interactions with the officers of the Jammu frontier the BSF officer laid emphasis on the threat posed by the cross border tunnel and Pakistani drones abetting smuggling of weapons/ narcotics.