Devotees flood Varanasi Ghats, lanes, stretch district admn bandobast to limits
On Mauni Amavasya, Varanasi saw a massive influx of pilgrims, with around 10 lakh taking a holy dip, stretching police resources amid crowd management efforts.
Lanes and roads leading to Ghats in Varanasi were packed with pilgrims on the occasion of Mauni Amavasya on Wednesday and a very large crowd of devotees reached the city from the Mahakumbh. The size of the crowd stretched the police and district administration to the limits.
According to an estimate, around 10 lakh people took holy dip.
The monitoring of the crowd was done from the Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC) through dozens of drones and 2,500 CCTV cameras, police officials said. Tethered CCTV cameras were also employed. For the safety of the devotees in River Ganga, NDRF teams, Jal Police, PAC, Flood Relief Team, SDRF personnel were also deployed.
Devotees offered prayers to Baba Kashi Vishwanath and a huge number of devotees offered prayers to Baba Kaal Bhairva on Wednesday after taking bath in the Ganga.
Inspection
District magistrate S Rajalingam and additional police commissioner Dr S Channappa inspected Manduadih (Banaras) and Cantt Railway Stations for smooth movement of devotees/passengers coming to Varanasi.
The DM said that in case of overcrowding at the railway station, people should be sent to the nearby holding areas, night shelters, schools and lawns.
On the request of additional divisional railway manager, Cantt, Lalji Chaudhary, instructions were given to deploy an additional city magistrate (ACM) each at both the stations till February 5.
The DM directed the chief medical officer Sandeep Chaudhary to deploy medical teams at Kashi and Shivpur stations.
Vehicles stopped
In view of the incident at the Mahakumbh, vehicles of devotees have been stopped on the border of many districts including Varanasi, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Chandauli, and Mau, according to police officials.
Roadways buses and private vehicles reaching Mungarabadshahpur have been stopped at Sathariya and Ithara.
In Mirzapur, monitoring has been increased on the routes going from the district to Prayagraj. Vehicles coming from Madhya Pradesh were stopped near Drummanganj. While vehicles going from Mirzapur to Prayagraj were stopped near Jigana.
In Bhadohi, hundreds of vehicles were parked in the holding area built in the district. Big vehicles have been stopped at Sidhauna on the Varanasi border.
CP’s appeal
Commissioner of police, Mohit Agarwal, appealed to the people living along the Ghats, in the vicinity of Baba Vishwanath Dham, Kalbhairav Temple, Durgakund Temple, Sankatmochan Temple, BHU’s new Vishwanath Temple and all other major monasteries and temples to stay indoors and cooperate with the police for crowd management and smooth traffic.
Over 70L devotees visited KV Dham since Jan 11
Over 70 lakh devotees have offered prayers at the Baba Kashi Vishwanath Temple here since January 11 owing to the Mahakumbh.
The KV Temple administration said that due to the reverse flow of Mahakumbh devotees, the number of visitors has significantly increased at the KV Dham.
Keeping in mind the increasing number of visitors, additional arrangements have been made by deploying an additional number of personnel, health facilities and sanitation system on the KV Temple premises.
On normal days, 50,000 to 70,000 devotees offer prayers daily. According to the KV Temple administration, the number of visitors started surging from January 11 and is continuing to surge.