"As many as 84 pilgrims have died in just 21 days of the yatra this year, but the state government and the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board remain unmoved," Vishwa Hindu Parishad state president Rama Kant Dubey told reporters here.
While condoling the pilgrim deaths, Dubey said that the incidents revealed the "inefficiency and mismanagement" by the Shrine board in organising the yatra.
"The Shrine board members must resign for failing to protect the pilgrims," he said.
Dubey pointed out that before the yatra, Union Health Minister Gulam Nabi Azad had also asked the SASB to ensure adequate health cover for yatris, "but no action was initiated".
Meanwhile, expressing concern over the pilgrim deaths, the ruling National Conference today asked health officials and SASB to ensure more medical facilities on both routes leading to the 3,888-feet-high cave shrine.
"It is a serious issue and required efforts are being made to control the death rate," NC's provincial president Rattan Lal Gupta told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.
Gupta asked the health authorities and SASB members to ensure more medical facilities for the pilgrims and stressed on the need to set up mobile medical teams on both tracks leading to the cave shrine.
"The Jammu and Kashmir government and SASB are taking efforts in this context, but, yes, more measures are definitely required," he said.
