Jammu & Kashmir Turmoil: Hotels cancel bookings, water bottles priced at Rs 100 amidst crisis
Looking at the tensions prevailing in Jammu and Kashmir, an advisory has been issued to evacuate the Amarnath pilgrims and tourists who planned their Independence Day weekend there.
Top Kashmir leaders including Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti, Sajjad Lone have been put under house arrest, which has led to a major turmoil in Jammu and Kashmir. The valley was on the edge again as Section 144 of CrPC was imposed that led to mobile services being suspended. Looking at the tensed situation, an advisory has been issued to evacuate the Amarnath pilgrims and tourists who planned their Independence Day weekend there. Nisar Wani, director of Tourism Kashmir told Economic Times, “The (security) advisory doesn't specify any time. It can be revoked anytime or it could take days. We have nothing else to say and are just abiding by the government order.”
The tour operators claimed that as many as 50% travellers who had earlier planned to visit the valley have cancelled their airlines, Indian Railways and hotel bookings. Kapil Goswamy, managing director at travel portal BigBreaks.com told ET, “The airlines have announced that they are waiving off cancellation charges for now, but it doesn't look like the situation will improve in the next few days. Fortunately, hotel and package suppliers are flexible on this, so we are giving full refunds to our clients currently.”
Even though the advisory has been issued, there has been still people who are worried. The airfare from Srinagar to Delhi has increased to Rs 22,000. At the same time, flight tickets from Srinagar to Jammu are getting high more than Rs 10,000. Private vehicles are prohibited from travelling alone and are being taken with the convoy of the army.
As per reports by Bhaskar, Manan Trivedi who belongs to Gujarat was on Amarnath yatra. He revealed that our group has been kept in one place for the last 5 days. We have private cars, yet 100 cars are being dispatched with an army convoy. Rates of goods have increased here and not only this even bottled water which is priced at Rs 20 is being sold at a hike price of Rs 100.
Meanwhile, addressing the Parliament on Kashmir issue, Home Minister Amit Shah proposed to revoke various clauses of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.