Revision as of 15:07, 13 November 2018

What is Chhath Puja?

The annual 4-day Chhath Puja explained.; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, November 16, 2015

See graphic:

The annual 4-day Chhath Puja explained.

Administrative arrangements

Delhi

2018

This Chhath, devotees will have 1,000 ghats to pray at, November 10, 2018: The Times of India

Paras Singh, Not to be left behind, corpns also loosen their purse strings, November 10, 2018: The Times of India

Administrative arrangements made in Delhi for the Chhath Puja, 2018
From: This Chhath, devotees will have 1,000 ghats to pray at, November 10, 2018: The Times of India

Delhi Government Says People Won’t Have To Travel For Long Distances

To ensure that people do not have to travel long distances to perform Chhath Puja in 2018, Delhi government has set up 1,000 ghats, both permanent and temporary, across the capital.

Delhi Tirth Yatra Vikas Samiti chairman Kamal Bansal said that last year the government had identified 609 locations for people to perform Chhath Puja. “This time, we have increased the number of ghats to 1,000. Devotees will not have to travel more than 1-2km this year to find a ghat to offer prayers,” he added.

Apart from the Yamuna banks, ghats have also been set up near several waterbodies. Also, ponds have been developed in parks owned by the three corporations, public works department and DDA. “The government is making all necessary arrangements, including tents, lights, and chairs where devotees can rest. The ghats along the river and waterbodies have also been cleaned,” Bansal said.

Development minister Gopal Rai on Friday inspected the Hathi Ghat near ITO to see the preparations made by the agencies concerned. He was accompanied by officials of the revenue and irrigation and flood control departments.

Rai said when Aam Aadmi Party formed the government in Delhi, there were only 60 ghats for lakhs of Poorvanchalis to offer prayers. “We have now ensured there are enough ghats for people to offer prayers. Adequate arrangements have been made to provide devotees a safe environment,” he added in a statement.

There are around 40 lakh Poorvanchali voters, natives of eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, who play a key role in elections in Delhi. The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has released Rs 41.6 lakh for providing additional facilities at Chhath ghats situated under its 104 wards in south and west Delhi areas.

Mayor of the civic body Narender Chawla said that each organising committee will be provided Rs 40,000 for this purpose.

“The funds can be used for lighting the streets in and around the ghats, maintenance and related work,” Chawla said. All three civic bodies are also going to set up special coordination booths for this purpose.

Mayor of east and south corporations have written to the chief ministers of neighbouring states to improve water coming from Hindon and Munak canal. Former mayor Preety Agarwal said that Munak canal comes from Karnal to areas like Bawana, Rohini and Haiderpur before meeting Yamuna. “The canal is being cleaned up. The depth of the canal has increased which may cause problems for Chhath devotees. Around two lakh devotees can use this,” she added.

Despite being in tough financial position, cash-strapped east corporation had, announced that it will provide a support of Rs10,000 to every Chhath samiti for carrying out minor works. Mostly celebrated by Purvanchali community this is the only festival which gets financial support from corporations. With more than 30% voters in Delhi from Purvanchal, the migrant population comprising people from eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar is a huge vote bank no political party can afford to ignore — especially with the Lok Sabha elections less than 6 months away.

Meanwhile, mayors and top political functionaries of the corporations have started taking rounds of the ghats around the city.