Kashmir situation takes toll on Umrah packages

Kashmir situation takes toll on Umrah packages

SRINAGAR: The prevailing shutdown and communications lockdown in the Valley has taken a toll on numbers of Umrah pilgrims from Kashmir.
Travel operators say that compared to 10,000 pilgrims who travelled to Makkah last year, the number is likely to hover around 5000 this year.
General Secretary, Jammu and Kashmir Haj Umrah Tour Organiser Association, Umar Nazir told Kashmir Reader that the drop is expected as very few people have shown interest for the pilgrimage this year. Data from past years, he said, shows that by October at least two groups of pilgrims would have had registered for the pilgrimage, while only one group is ready to go this year.
“The drop is likely to happen,” he said. “And reasons are obvious- the decline in spending powers of people, and systemic insufficiency in the process of getting the Umrah registrations complete.”
Umar’s fear stems from the fact that all businesses, communication channels and internet, the drivers of the travel sector in Kashmir remained badly affected post abrogation of special status of Jammu and Kashmir. From rough estimates, the lockdown since August 5 has led to a loss of more than 8000 crore in the state’s 90000 crore economy.
According to Umar, the losses faced by the economy due to lockdown will hamper a significant number of prospective pilgrims as most of the pilgrims came from business class. Among the salaried class, he said, the drop is expected due to fear factor.
Moreover, he said, the internet shutdown has slowed down the system required for registration.
Umar, who is one of eight registered operators from the Valley, has moved his office from Kashmir to Delhi where he can access internet. At his office in Srinagar, the staff procure details and documentation, which are later sent to him in bulk to Delhi by a person. Under normal circumstances, Umar said, most of the work was done from Kashmir. An operator would go to Delhi only for processing visas.
“This slow system has impacted the frequency of our work. What we used to do in a day takes two weeks,” he added.
Not all operators could manage to shift their operation to Delhi, he added.
“The drop in numbers therefore mean cut in the overall revenue.”
In last decade, there has been mushroom growth of Umarh operators mainly due to easy availability of internet, which had consequently given boost to pilgrim flow from Kashmir.

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