Prayagraj: A sea of devotees converged on the banks of Sangam to take a holy dip on the auspicious occasion of the last bathing festival of Maha Shivratri, which also marks the culmination of the 45-day-long Maha Kumbh, one of the largest spiritual and cultural congregations in the world, on Wednesday.
The banks of Triveni Sangam, the confluence of holy Ganga, Yamuna, and mystique Saraswati rivers, reverberated with the chants of 'Har Har Mahadev,' 'Ganga Maiyya ki Jai,' and 'Jai Shri Ram' as tight security arrangements have been made to ensure a seamless bath on Maha Shivratri.
The enthusiasm among the devotees could be gauged from the fact that from 2 am more than 60.12 lakh devotees took a holy dip in the Sangam waters till 8 am. According to the official figures, so far more than 65 crore devotees have taken advantage of the holy bath.
Flower shower from the helicopter by the Uttar Pradesh government on the last day of the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj added enthusiasm among the devotees. Special attention is being paid to the security and arrangements of the devotees reaching the Sangam banks in large numbers.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath himself is monitoring the holy bath from Gorakhpur. Like all the past Amrit Snan and Snan Parv, the CM reached the control room at 4 am to see the arrangements.
Due to his stay in Gorakhpur, a control room was set up for him in the Gorakhnath temple itself, where he was seen monitoring the bathing festival every moment. He watched every feed of devotees bathing live on TV and directed the top officials from the control room itself.
The entire Prayagraj has been converted into a no-vehicle zone. Apart from Prayagraj, lakhs of devotees are queuing up to have the darshan of Baba Vishwanath in Varanasi as well.
As per the directives of CM Yogi, all the top officials also appeared alert, and they also took charge from the morning itself. Earlier, Yogi had also held a meeting with the officials in the war room since morning on the occasion of Basant Panchami and Magh Purnima Amrit Snan and kept monitoring.
The CM took stock of the entire situation in terms of security and arrangements for this important event of the Maha Shivratri Snan festival. In Gorakhpur, he reached the control room located at Gorakhnath temple in the morning and kept monitoring the live feed of the bathing festival.
He directed the administrative and police officials that the devotees should not face any kind of inconvenience during the bath and all the arrangements should be kept in order.
Yogi directed the officials to ensure complete security at all the ghats and make all necessary arrangements for the devotees. Along with this, he also directed to ensure the readiness of the administration on this great festival of faith.
He especially focused on security arrangements and traffic management so that crores of devotees can get the benefit of bathing in Triveni Sangam without any problem.