Calls not to crowd area near Sangam Nose ignored | Lucknow News


Calls not to crowd area near Sangam Nose ignored

PRAYAGRAJ: The rush of devotees towards the Sangam Nose — considered as the most coveted and auspicious place for the holy dip — was the main cause for the stampede. A large number of devotees were either huddled or sleeping in the limited space near the Sangam Nose — waiting to bathe in the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati at the break of dawn — despite warnings and announcements by the Mela authorities to vacate the area.
Around 2am, another large batch of devotees broke past the barricades to head towards the Sangam Nose, triggering the stampede. This was the same area which connects the reserved cordon dedicated for the akharas which had to start for Amrit Snan from 5am.
Despite the incident, a massive crowd of devotees waited on the Shastri Bridge (connecting Prayagraj City to Jhunsi) the entire day in the hope of reaching the Sangam Nose for the dip. This, when authorities repeatedly made announcements that pilgrims coming from Varanasi and Jaunpur side should bathe at the temporary ghats on the Jhunsi side of the river.
The Sangam Nose is the point where all the akharas take holy dip on big bath days. This time, the mela administration along with the irrigation department under the guidance of experts from IIT-Guwahati managed to create 2 hectare of additional space at the nose which would be enough to hold at least 2 lakh more devotees at a time as compared to 2019. The reclaimed area in size would be equivalent to a parking lot ground having capacity to hold about 630 four-wheelers or having four football fields next to each other.
“Not just Sangam Nose, the entire Panch Kosh (around 9.5 km stretch) of the area around Sangam is pious,” said the head of Paramhans Ashram (Tikar Mafi), Swami Harichaitanya Bhramchari. If devotees are eager to bathe in the water of the confluence, then they can take the dip in the lower stream of the Ganga (towards Chhatnag) where one gets water of the two rivers, he added.
In a video that went viral on social media on Tuesday, Prayagraj divisional commissioner Vijay Vishwas Pant was seen appealing to devotees not to sleep near ghats and vacate the mela area after taking the bath. But, it seems, the advisory was ignored.





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