Agra admn cancels annual ‘Sawan Mela’

AGRA: In view of surging cases of Covid 19 in the city of Taj, district administration has cancelled the annual ‘Sawan Mela’, scheduled to begin from Monday.

Had it not been a corona pandemic, the city would have witness the inauguration of the first fair of Sawan month at Rajeshwar temple here on Sunday.

The fair is organised on consecutive Mondays at different Shiva temples situated at four corners of the city.

“After consultations with the religious heads and taking into account the assembling of crowd with no scope of social distancing, it was mutually decided to call off the Sawan fair this year,” stated district magistrate Agra Prabhu N Singh.

The elders are unable to recollect such instance when the Sawan fair was not organised in the city. “I don’t remember when such a situation arose that we had no Sawan fair in the city,” said an elderly denizen.

It has been a tradition that fair is organised on every Monday in Sawan and it used to begin from Rajeshwar temple of Lord Shiva at one corner of city.

The second Monday used to have fair at Balkeshwar Mahadev temple located on banks of river Yamuna.

Third fair was organised at Kailash temple, again on banks of river Yamuna, and was considered to be most important among the four fairs of Sawan month.

Residents of Agra used to reach Kailasht temple in outskirts of the city and local holiday was declared for the grand mela.

The series used to end with fair at Prithvinath Mahadev temple on fourth Monday of Sawan.

However, the city is to miss the fair this year with corona pandemic gripping the city filled with containment zones.

It may be recalled that temples and other places of worship remain closed in Agra because of the city falling in red zone.