Navratra fest begins today, cashless donations too

Ishrat S Banwait

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, March 27

The annual Navratra fair, starting at the Mansa Devi temple here tomorrow, is all set to go cashless as all donations will be accepted through mobile wallets like Paytm and other online payment modes. In a bid to promote cashless transactions, the district administration will enable all counters with Paytm mobile application so that devotees can travel without any cash whatsoever and prevent pick-pocketing as well in the process.

The donations during the Navratra fests, held twice a year, exceed over Rs 1 crore each. During the last Navratras in October 2016, an amount of Rs 1.27 crore was donated to the temple. City Magistrate Mamta Sharma said, “All counters will have the option of payment through Paytm and we are trying to enable payment through debit and credit cards as well.”

The most-sought-after “jhulas” at the temple are set to return to the Navratra fair after Deputy Commissioner Gauri Parasher Joshi allowed these this time around. The ticket prices will have to be kept between Rs 10 and Rs 20. The jhulas were discarded some time back as the authorities at that time felt that these took away the sheen of spirituality from the religious event.

The Mata Mansa Devi Shrine Board will spend around Rs 64 lakh this Navratra fest of which Rs 13.5 lakh will be spent on lighting and Rs 6 lakh on flower decoration. The Tricolour lighting, which will “extend to a 6-km distance from the temple”, will greet devotees. The “parikrama” of the main temple has been widened and will enable 2,000 people to be present at the “aarti” at once.

A total of 110 buses — 70 of the CTU and 40 of the Haryana Roadways — will help people reach the temple. Besides, 10 auto-rikshaws will take people to the temple free of cost.

700 cops on guard

As many as 700 policemen have been deployed on security duty during the nine-day fest.