Apex court stays NGT ruling on new path to Vaishno Devi
There was difficulty in construction work due to arrival of winter. MUKUL ROHATGI,
Shrine board’s counsel
NEW DELHI: Even as the Supreme Court stayed National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) order directing the opening of a new path — Tarakote Marg — to Vaishno Devi shrine in Jammu for pedestrians and battery-operated cars from November 24, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board said, “the work is on full throttle and we will complete it at the earliest.”
The SC bench comprising Justices MB Lokur, Deepak Gupta passed the order on Monday after the Board approached the court via its counsel Mukul Rohatgi with a plea that it was not possible to open the third way, ‘Tarakote Marg’, from November 24.
“It was not possible for us to open the track before February next year and that is why the apex court has stayed the NGT order,” shrine board chief executive officer (CEO) Jitendra Kumar Singh told Hindustan Times. “Work has been allotted to three agencies and has been going on at a rapid pace,” he added.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing the board, said there was difficulty in construction work due to the arrival of winter in the area.“There is a huge slope. It is a seismic zone,” he said, adding “in winters, there is difficulty in construction work.”
It may be stated here that to reach the cave shrine, two paths are already functional and the Tarakote Marg shall be the third after its completion.
Besides directing the opening of the new path, the NGT in its order had capped the number of visitors to the shrine at 50,000 per day in a striking contrast to the fact that the per day figures never crossed 35,000 even during the peak days of Navratras, as per shrine board officials.
The petitioner Gauri Maulekhi, a Dehradun-based social activist had approached the NGT seeking a check on the indiscriminate use of horses, mules, donkeys and ponies that caused ‘pollution and danger to public health’ of senior citizens and children.
The animals here are used to carry pilgrims and goods from Katra to the Vaishno Devi temple.
The NGT had also directed the authorities to impose a fine of ₹2,000 on anyone found littering on roads as well as the bus stop at the nearby Katra town.