Health Certificate Must & Should for Amarnath Yatra Registration

The revised health certificate has been made compulsory for Amarnath yatris for 2016 yatra. In 2016, Amarnath Yatra begins on July 2 and concludes on August 18 with Rakshabandhan Festival.

The decision to this effect was taken during an extensive review meeting held today by the Amarnath Shrine Board Chairman N N Vohra with Chief Executive Officer Navin K Choudhary and Additional Chief Executive Officer Preet Pal Singh and other concerned functionaries of the board.

During the meeting, Amarnath shrine board CEO Navin K Choudhary said that the applicant yatris were required to submit Compulsory Health Certificate while seeking registration for this year’s Amarnath Yatra.

He said that the format of the Compulsory Health Certificate had been circulated by the Union Health Ministry and the J&K State Health Department to all States and union territories and was also available on the shrine board website.

Choudhary said that for ensuring against the use of fraudulent health certificates only such a health certificate which had been issued by doctors or medical institutes authorized by the concerned state government and union territory administration would be valid for registration.
He said that all the states and union territories had been asked to furnish a list of doctors and medical institutes who would be authorized to issue the compulsory health certificates to the eligible yatris in their respective states and union territories.

Choudhary said that lists of doctors and medical institutes authorized to issue compulsory health certificate had been received from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Jharkhand, Tripura, Jammu and Kashmir, and Chandigarh and those could be seen on the website of the shrine board. He said that the lists of doctors and medical institutes from the remaining states and union territories would be put on the website as soon as those were received from the States which had not so far responded.

Choudhary said that for 2016 yatra, health certificates issued after February 29, 2016 would be valid. He said that no one below the age of 13 years or above the age of 75 years and no pregnant woman with more than six weeks pregnancy would be registered for the yatra.

During the meeting it was also revealed that the process of registering Amarnath yatris for this year’s yatra would commence from March 18 simultaneously for both the Baltal and Chandanwari routes through 422 bank branches.

Choudhary said that yatris who wish to undertake this year’s Amarnath yatra could register themselves from registration counters located across India through 422 designated branches of J&K Bank, YES Bank, State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and HDFC Bank spread over all the states and union territories.

Full details of all the registration centers have been made available on the shrine board’s website. Choudhary said that this year’s yatra would commence simultaneously along both the Baltal and Chandanwari routes on July 2 and culminate on Raksha Bandhan on August 18, 2016.