By Avijit Biswas
Bhagalpur, May 22: To ensure proper prior assessment regarding daily arrival of pilgrims at Sultanganj in this district during month long Shrawani Mela beginning from July 24 this year, the Bhagalpur administration has decided to develop a portal or an app. Through the portal or app, the pilgrims will be able to intimate local administration about date and time of their arrival at Sultanganj.
Taking into consideration prior intimation by pilgrims about date and time of their arrival will be useful and in crowd management and also in making arrangements for convenience of pilgrims, the decision was taken at official meeting held last evening on Shrawani Mela 2024 preparations.
District Magistrate (DM) Dr Nawal Kishore Choudhury who chaired the meeting laying stress on proper prior assessment of daily arrival of pilgrims for arrangement purposes including security arrangement, directed for developing portal and app.
He was of the opinion with proper prior assessment regarding daily arrival of pilgrims at Sultanganj during Shrawani Mela, the local administration would be in position to communicate real picture of pilgrim flow to adjoining districts through which pilgrim route passes besides also to Deoghar district administration in Jharkhand where Baidyanathdham temple is located.
The information about arrival of pilgrims at Sultanganj provided by local administration would be useful for Deoghar administration in managing crowd of pilgrims at Biadyanathdham temple, he felt.
It may be mentioned during month long Shrawani Mela the pilgrims undertake journey on foot to Baidyanathdham temple with Kanwars fetching holy water of river Ganga from Sultanganj for paying obeisance to lord Shiva. Approximately distance of 104 kilometer is covered by pilgrims in course of their trek to Baidyanathdham temple from Sultanganj.
As per district administration assessment normally turnout of pilgrims at Sultanganj is between 70000-80000 on every Saturday and Monday while it is between 40000-50000 on other days during mela period. Taking into account usual arrival of pilgrims on different days of week preparatory arrangements for mela was discussed in the meeting.
The officials of different departments present in the meeting were directed by DM to prepare work plan concerning mela arrangements and get approval of the work plans from their respective department well in time. The executive engineer of national highway, Bhagalpur division was specifically directed by DM to ensure all works being undertaken for improving condition of stretch of highway between Bhagalpur and Sultanganj is completed by June 30.
The officials present in the meeting included Nitin Kumar Singh, municipal commissioner, Kumar Anurag, Deputy Development Commissioner, Ajay Kumar Singh, additional collector, Nagendra Kunar Gupta, joint director, Information and Public Relations Department and Dhananjay Kumar, SDO (Sadar) beside other.
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- Writer Avijit Biswas, former principal correspondent of Hindustan Times Bhagalpur bureau, can be contacted at biswasavijit@yahoo.comContact number (mobile): +919431095516
