Mahakumbh: Focus now on making Basant Panchami snan ‘zero-error’ exercise

Hectic preparations are underway in Prayagraj city as well as the temporary tent city of Mahakumbh Nagar ahead of the third and final Amrit Snan of Basant Panchami set to take place on February 3.

Taking lessons from the stampedes on Mauni Amavasya (on January 29) which, according to official figures, claimed 30 lives of pilgrims and left another 60 injured, officials are on double alert and even the state government has sent in additional officials to help buttress all arrangements.

The focus: Making Basant Panchami bathing a ‘zero-error’ exercise.

The Mela police administration has decided to not just rely on modern technology but also trust time-tested old methods of managing massive crowds. All police station and police outpost in-charges of the sprawling 40 sq km mela area have been instructed to immediately send information to higher authorities through wireless if a sudden crowd surge is witnessed anywhere at the bathing ghats and fair area beyond the area’s capacity.

This has been done to ensure that a crowd does not gather at any one place, said officials.

“Every possible effort is being made to make Mahakumbh safe. All police station and outpost in-charges have been instructed not to allow unnecessary crowd gathering at Ghats and fair area. It has been advised to continuously exchange information regarding crowd management,” said Rajesh Dwivedi, SSP (Mahakumbh).

If the pressure of the crowd increases in the fair area and the ghats, then the police station and outpost in-charge will immediately send the information through wireless. Due to this, both the police station in-charge under whom the site falls, and the officers of adjacent police stations of the site concerned will be alerted. Along with stopping the crowd from moving forward to that site, they will try to control the situation by diverting the rush of pilgrims in another direction. The Mahakumbh police administration has instructed officials not to make any mistake in this process, officials said.

Seven additional IPS officers

Another seven experienced IPS officers of the state have been asked to boost security and crowd management in the Mela area. The state government has issued instructions to these seven IPS officers to reach Mahakumbh area and take charge. All security arrangements are being made in view of the huge crowd of devotees coming to the Mahakumbh.

These police officials include additional SP Vikas Chandra Tripathi, who is presently staff officer of ADG (law and order), DCP (Kanpur Nagar) Shravan Kumar Singh, SP (Deoria) Dipendranath Chaudhary, SP (administration) at DGP HQ Raj Dhari Chaurasia, ASP (Basti)

Omprakash Singh, ASP (Shravasti) Praveen Kumar Yadav and SP of anti-corruption organisation Laxmi Niwas Mishra.

Govt nominated officers hold spl workshop

In the aftermath of the Mauni Amavasya incident, the chairman of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ashish Goyal and relief commissioner Bhanu Chandra Goswami, both appointed by the state government for Mahakumbh, organised a workshop of officers in the Mela Police Lines. After the joint workshop of sector magistrates and circle officers, the officials were made to jointly sign on the traffic plan. It was made clear that if there was any flaw in the future in the traffic plan, the sector magistrate and circle officer concerned will jointly be held responsible.

During the workshop it emerged that many officials did not know about the sector boundaries and as a result they also did not know how and what decisions they should take in different situations. They were then explained how, when and what is to be done.

The bathing of Basant Panchami will start from February 2 itself. All the officers concerned were instructed to prepare for the arrival of a large number of devotees from February 2 itself. They were also asked to ensure the deployment of additional police force on the routes where there is a possibility of a large crowd or where there was a large crowd in the previous bathing days.

All sector magistrates and deployed police officers were also asked to share information regarding sites in their areas where they feel there is a lack of adequate signages to guide pilgrims or they want to make them more organized. Officials were especially asked to request devotees to bathe at the ghats closest to them, so that excessive pressure is not felt on any one ghat.

ADG (Zone) holds high-level meeting

Ahead of Basant Panchami, a high-level meeting was held at the Mela Reserve Police Lines in Parade Ground on Friday evening chaired by ADG (Prayagraj Zone) Bhanu Bhaskar.

A detailed briefing was given regarding law and order, traffic management and security of devotees during the forthcoming bathing. Important instructions were issued regarding crowd control at the ghats, deployment of security forces, surveillance system and emergency services.

Drone cameras, CCTV surveillance, anti-terror squad and disaster management force have already been placed on alert mode, so that any untoward situation can be dealt with immediately, officials said.

NDRF and diving teams have been deployed on the ghats, which will remain alert all the time. Apart from this, ambulances, temporary hospitals and medical teams have been kept ready for health services. On this occasion, all senior police officers of the fair area and the city including Prayagraj police commissioner Tarun Gauba, sector magistrates and paramilitary force officers were present.