24 lakh take holy dip on Kartik Poornima

Tribune News Service

Haridwar, November 25

From the wee hours, lakhs of pilgrims arrived at the sanctum sanctorum of Brahma Kund Har-ki-Pauri and the adjacent Ganga ghats to take a holy dip in the Ganga on the occasion of Kartik Poornima today.

Pilgrims were also seen at Subash ghat, Malviya ghat, VIP ghat, Nai Sota ghat, Kushawarat ghat, Alaknanda ghat, Birla ghat, Love Kush ghat, Gobind ghat, Swami Vivekanand ghat, Prem Nagar ashram ghat and other Ganga ghats taking a holy dip and performing religious rites.

Elaborate security arrangements and traffic plans were put in place for the festive occasion which, by the evening, had witnessed about 24 lakh pilgrims from various parts of the country.

SSP Senthil Abudai Krishan Prakash and District Magistrate Harbans Singh Chugh monitored the whole mela proceedings, with the SSP overseeing the proceedings at Har-ki-Pauri since 5 am.

For today’s pious Kartik festive fair, Superintendent of Police (city) Navneet Singh Bhullar was made the mela in charge.

A special mela cell monitored the proceedings of the fair from control room near Har-ki-Pauri.

Navneet Singh Bhullar said additional police personnel from other districts of the state were also deputed for the occasion.

The mela force comprised of eight deputy police superintendent (DSPs), 24 station house officers (SHOs), 125 sub inspectors (SI), 15 assistant sub inspectors (ASI), 110 head constables, 600 constables, 105 sub head constables, eight traffic inspectors, 18 head constables of traffic police, 70 traffic constables, two fire tankers, two recovery vans, eight companies of provincial armed constabulary and one platoon of PAC rescue swimming squad.

“About 50 per cent of the mela force comprised of personnel from other districts of the state, as Kartik Poornima festive is a major festive bath in the ending phase of the year. Taking into account the previous years’ turnout, we had made requisite arrangements and deployed adequate police personnel,” said Navneet Singh Bhullar.