Over 15 lakh pilgrims take holy dip at Sangam
PRAYAGRAJ: Over 15 lakh devotees took holy dip at Sangam on the occasion of Basant Panchami, the fourth and one of the main bathing festivals of Magh Mela-2022 on Saturday. Mela administration made elaborate arrangements for the smooth completion of bathing festival, including tight security, cleanliness at ghats and other amenities for the devotees.
Besides, the Railways and UPSRTC administration operated special trains and buses for the devotees who reached the mela area from different parts of the state and all over the country.
As the mela administration were expecting huge turnout of devotees coming for the festival and taking the holy dip, authorities made 10 temporary ghats in mela area.
Earlier on Friday, the divisional commissioner Sanjay Goyal, Mela Adhikari Arvind Kumar Chauhan and other officials carried out inspections at different sectors in mela area and gave necessary instructions to subordinates for maintaining cleanliness and laying dried grass at ghats.
The officials have deployed sanitary workers in three shifts who ensured that ghats and mela area remained clean.
For Saturday’s snan, heavy security arrangements were made at different ghats, entry and exit points by the mela police. Along with this, a detailed and meticulous traffic diversion for smooth movement of pilgrims on the occasion of bathing day was also in place.
The diversions came into effect from Thursday night and continued till Saturday midnight.
Amid the chilly and foggy weather, the mela witnessed huge turnout of devotees. As per the mela administration, 2.5 lakh devotees had taken the dip in the holy waters by 8am and in the next two hours, another 2 lakh devotees took the dip.
The numbers continued to swell all day through and by 2pm, 11 lakh devotees had taken holy bath and by 4pm, the numbers stood at 14 lakhs reaching 15 lakhs by 6pm.
“We focused on better crowd management and traffic movement for which different parking sites were made where vehicles were parked,” said SP Magh Mela Rajiv Narain Mishra.
The arrangements were made in such a way that as soon as the parking near Sangam got filled, the vehicles were made to park at parade ground and the pilgrims needed to trek from there to the ghats of their choice for taking the dip, he added.
Besides, deep water barricading was placed for security of devotees and Jal Police and divers kept an eye at ghats. “All arrangements were complete on Friday, ahead of the Basant Panchami ‘snan’. Help of drones and CCTV cameras was taken to keep an eye on crowd of devotees and managing their movement,” said divisional commissioner Sanjay Goyal.
Mela Adhikari, Arvind Kumar Chauhan said, “We took special care for the cleanliness of the ghats, and in view of the pandemic several Covid help desks were operated at various places in the mela area and devotees were checked with thermal scanning before entering the mela area and asked to wear facemasks”.
The snan concluded smoothly with the support of all the departments, he added.