Prayagraj, Feb 2 (PTI) Nearly 1.50 crore devotees took holy dips in the Ganga river here in Paryagraj on the occasion of the rare two-day “mauni amawasya” ending Tuesday amid the ongoing Magh fair on the river bank.
The fair authorities on Tuesday said the number of devotees taking dips in the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers here reached 1.47 crore on Tuesday with over 50 lakh people taking the bath by Monday night itself.
The mauni amawasya, falling on the moonless day of the Magh month under the Hindu calendar, is considered a pious day with devotees taking dips in the Ganga amid the month-long fair on river banks in Prayagraj. As per the Hindu calendar, the mauni amawasya fell on two days this year — January 31 and February 1.
Performing the ‘pind daan’ rituals here at the behest of devotees for securing the salvation of departed souls of their family members, priest Bhola Nath Tripathi said the ‘muhurat’ (pious period) of the mauni amawasya began at 2.20 pm on Monday and lasted till 11.16 am on Tuesday.
The devotees, however, kept taking holy dips in the rive till evening, he said.
Fair authorities said the people had begun arriving at the fair site since Sunday itself and began taking dips from Monday.
They said the fair is being held amid strict observance of the Covid protocol and over 300 people were penalised for violating it.
The officials also said the fair is being held amid various security and safety measures including the deployment and patrolling of policemen, horse-mounted jawans, anti-terror and bomb disposal squads, state disaster management personnel besides divers to avert any untoward incident.
A total of 150 CCTV cameras have been installed at various crucial points for monitoring various activities in the fairground, they said.
They said Prayagraj Zone’s Additional Director General of Police Prem Prakash, Inspector General of Police Rakesh Singh, Superintendent of Police (Magh Mela) Rajiv Narayan Mishra and SSP Ajay Pandey besides other senior police officials have been regularly camping at the fairground on river banks to supervise the safety and security arrangements at the fair.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Durga Shankar Mishra too had visited the fair site on Sunday to take stock of the safety and security arrangements here, they said. PTI RAJ RAX RAX
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
Source: The Print
