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A meeting chaired by Governor NN Vohra on Friday decided to suspend Amarnath yatra from Baltal camp in Sonmarg till Saturday.  But if the weather is fair, the yatra might resume on Saturday

itself. The annual pilgrimage remained suspended on both routes due to bad weather over the past few days but resumed from Pahalgam route on Friday, with as many 5700 yatris leaving Nunwan

base camp toward the cave shrine, deputy commissioner Anantnag Muhammad Younis Malik said. The Governor, who is also the chairman of Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), on Friday visited

Baltal base camp where about 18,000 are awaiting green signal for trek to the shrine. A sizable number of pilgrims were also held up at Nunwan, Sheshnag, and Panjtarni camps because of bad

weather. An official who was present in the meeting said Vohra impressed upon the administration to ensure safety of pilgrims. Ganderbal deputy commissioner Piyush Singla told Greater

Kashmir that the meeting decided that those Baltal-side yatris who intend to undertake journey from Pahalgam route would be driven to Pahalgam in buses arranged by the SASB free of cost. He

said those yatris who have used Pahalgam route to reach the cave and intend to return by Baltal side would be escorted by quick response teams in a set time frame. Meanwhile, no fresh batch

of yatris was allowed to travel from Jammu due to landslides and shooting stones along the Srinagar-Jammu highway. So far, 68,000 pilgrims have visited the performed this year’s pilgrimage

that started on June 28. The Governor also inaugurate the newly-installed, first-of-its-kind Reverse Vending Machine (RVM) at Baltal by Sonamarg Development Authority, Ganderbal district

administration with the support of Coca Cola company. The Governor said the initiative will go a step forward in preserving the environment. He appreciated the administration and thanked

Coca Cola company for installing environment-friendly machines in the area where the influx of tourists and visitors is huge These machines have automatic waste collection mechanism, which

segregates garbage, reducing the need of manual segregation.