Bhojpur DM, SP inspect all Chhath ghats

Kumar Rajiv Nayan

Ara: Bhojpur district administration is busy in giving finishing touches to its preparations at all the ghats for Chhath festivities. The DM and the SP have held a meeting with all the officials concerned to ensure a safe and peaceful Chhath Puja in the district. They said adequate number of officials have been assigned individual tasks for the festival and directed to maintain law and order at any cost.

DM, Birendra Prasad Yadav and SP Kshatranil Singh said they inspected have all the ghats in Bhojpur district and directed the officials to ensure safety, sanitation and facilities to the devotees and also maintain law and order and added the ghats will be secured before the devotees arrive there for offering oblation or ‘arghya’ to the Sun god in the evening on November 6 and again in the morning on November 7.

They said Bhojpur district has 58 ghats of which several ghats including Collectorate pond, Gangi, Dharhara, Sapana Cinema mor, Powergnaj, New Police Line, Chandawa Sun temple, Dhobighatawa, Anaith and Ramgarhia at Ara are major ghats. On the other hand, district administration has banned TB Sanatorium, Bahiara, Mahadevchak, Semaria ghats due to indiscriminate mining of sand from river Sone river in Koelwar and Chandi.

Both the officials said a number of CCTV cameras have been installed to maintain round the clock vigil on the ghats and videographers are also being deputed at all the major ghats which won’t have CCTVs cameras. They said Public address systems have been installed at all the major ghats. Bamboo barricading of major and dangerous ghats have been completed. They stated teams of NDRF with boats, inflated motorboat, life jackets and trained divers will do patrolling on the Ganga and the Sone rivers and doctors, magistrates along with heavy police force have been deputed.

The officials said that they have been visiting various ghats on regular basis for the last several days. Sanitation and lighting arrangements have been made, lime and bleaching powder is being sprinkled and changing rooms or enclosures have been set up at almost every ghats. Arrangement for portable water has been made by Ara Municipal Corporation (AMC).

Municipal Commissioner Pramod Kumar said that professional divers would be there at Gangi and Police Line ghats to deal with any emergency situation. He said the corporation has deployed additional six sanitation workers in all the 45 wards. ” As there is no water at Ara Collectorate ghat, we are filling up the pond with pumping set to make it ready for the devotees for chhath,” he said.