Panipat to get 3 ghats for Chhath Puja: Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar

Tribune News Service

Mukesh Tandon

Panipat, November 19

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar announced the construction of three special ghats for the Chhath Puja in Panipat at the cost of Rs 5 crore and a Sun Temple between two canals, where the people from Purvanchal could offer prayers.

The Chief Minister (CM) along with BJP MP Manoj Tiwari participated in the Chhath Puja, a festival mainly celebrated in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, as a chief guest today. The festival was organised by 30 organisations of Purvanchal people and the state government.

The CM offered prayer to Sun in the evening and gave ‘Arghya’ with the Purvanchal people here. Khattar congratulated the people, especially the women for the Chhath Puja festival.

While addressing the gathering at the Chhath Puja programme, Khattar said the festival season started from Teej celebrations. He said the government celebrated the Teej festival on the historic land of Panipat in which over 50,000 women participated. Today, thousands of women celebrated the Chhath Puja festival here, the CM said.

He said five lakh families at 300 places in the state were celebrating the Chhath Puja festival. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) programme from Panipat on August 22, 2015, after which the gender ratio of the state had improved, he said.

“Panipat is a textile hub. Thousands of people from Purvanchal have played a big role in industrial development in Haryana. Their contributions in construction of buildings and agriculture field can’t be forgotten,” the CM said.

“Two canals flow from here. One of them is Ahulana distributary at the backside of the NFL. A 700-foot-ghat would be constructed at the cost of Rs 2 crore here,” the CM announced. The CM further said a 300-foot-ghat would be constructed on thermal channel on the Assandh road at the cost of Rs 1 crore and another 300-foot-ghat would be constructed on the drain No. 2 at Babarpur at the cost of Rs two crore.

He also announced the construction of a Sun Temple between two canals. He said the process for taking land from Mehrana village panchayat was underway. He said Rs 21 lakh would be given for the construction of the temple. He said the government had approved 1,000 colonies in the state and Rs 2,000 crore had been reserved for their development. The CM lauded various welfare schemes launched by the Central and the state governments for the poor people and families.

Thanking CM Khattar for his announcements, the BJP MP and former Delhi unit chief Manoj Tiwari said they had to fight for the construction of ghats for the Chhath Puja in Delhi, but CM Khattar gave approval for three ghats and a Sun Temple only on request.

Tiwari sang a song on Chhath Puja in Bhojpuri from the stage, which received an applause from the people present on the occasion. MP Sanjay Bhatia thanked members of 30 organisations of Purvanchal people for organising the Chhath Puja programme here.

BJP district president Dr Archna Gupta, Mayor Avneet Kaur, Zila Parishad Chairperson Jyoti Sharma, Additional Chief Secretary to CM Dr Amit Aggarwal, Deputy Commissioner Virender Kumar Dahiya, Superintendent of Police Ajeet Singh Shekhawat and others were present at the programme.

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