Mauni Amavasya holy dip at Mahakumbh
On the auspicious bathing day of Mauni Amavasya today, a large number of devotees have been gathered at the ongoing Maha Kumbh congregation at the holy Sangam in Allahabad.
Devotees, including women and children, had started taking a dip since late night.
Around three crore devotees are expected to take a holy dip today.
The day marks the second Shahi snan (royal bath) of this mela; the first was the Makar Sankranti snan on 14th January.
The Mauni Amavasya is considered the most auspicious of all the bathing days and is by far the biggest.
Mauni is derived from the word Muni, literally meaning an ascetic who practices silence.
Twenty-two ghats, spread across 14 sectors, including 12 on the
north of the Ganga and with a total length of 18,000 feet, are in place
for the snan.
The Shaivaite akharas, beginning with the Maha Nirvani and Atal
Akharas would be the first to move towards the Sangam ghat in the early
hours of Sunday.
They would be followed by the Niranjani, Anand, Juna, Awahan and Agni akharas.
The Vairagi akharas come next with the Nirmohi, Digambar Ani and
Nirvani Ani akharas queueing up, and then the two Udasin Akharas, the
Naya Udasin Panchayati and the Bada Udasin Panchayati akharas.
The Nirmala akhara will bring to a close the Shahi snan, which is
scheduled to start at 6.15 a.m. and expected to last till 5 p.m.
The akharas have been allotted 30 minutes to 1 hour for the holy dip.
Tight security arrangements
Tight security arrangements have been put in place to tackle law
and order problem and prevent stampedes and thwart any terrorist
activity.
According to Senior Superintendent of Police (Kumbh Mela), R K S
Rathore, commandos of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, the Central
Reserve Police Force and the Anti-Terrorism Squad have been deployed in
sufficient strength at the sprawling Kumbh area of about 6,000 acres.
They will be assisted by more than 5,000 policemen drawn in from
various parts of Uttar Pradesh and 4,000 personnel of Provincial Armed
Constabulary.
Dog squads and bomb disposal squads have also been pressed into
service, while watch towers have been established at various points from
where security personnel will be having a bird’s eye view while
remaining in touch with control rooms for necessary action.
CCTV cameras have also been placed at various places to keep a tab on the movements of the people.
Vehicular traffic has been banned since this morning in the Kumbh
area where a SP, an ASP, three Deputy SPs, five Traffic Inspectors, 10
Traffic sub-inspectors and 200 Traffic Constables have been deployed to
take care of crowd management.
According to Kumbh Mela Officer Mani Prasad Mishra, “an appeal has
been issued to all VIPs to either refrain from visiting the
congregation, or if they must do so, not to expect the special security
arrangements which are made available on normal days.”
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