5.3 lakh take holy dip at Sagar, 2.8cr go for e-snan

Kolkata: Around 5.3 lakh devotees took the holy dip on Friday at Gangasagar Mela while another 2.8 crore logged in for the e-snan. No untoward incident was reported.As lakhs tried to take a holy dip between the auspicious hours of 12 pm and 3 pm, the banks along Sagar Islands remained clogged as the administration tried to desperately enforce physical distancing.The HC appointed committee, which included retired Calcutta High Court judge

Samapti Chatterjee

and state legal services authority secretary Raju Mukherjee were reportedly unhappy with the administration for failing to control such gathering on the banks. The administration claimed they allowed only 150 people at a time.In the screening on Friday only one positive patient was found in the island. In the screening camps in the city, 43 positive people were traced and 171 persons are in safe homes, an official said.The devotees who had reached Sagar against all odds had started reaching for the waters from early morning which continued till afternoon. As the seers and pilgrims from different states approached the ghats loud religious chanting was heard. Many followed the almanac to take the holy dip and offered puja to the sea as priests aided them.Special attraction was the evening Arati on the beach and many visitors reached the beach to watch the electrifying setting in the backdrop of the

Kapil

Muni’s temple.Around 10.8 lakh masks were distributed to the pilgrims, said P Ulganathan, South 24 Parganas DM.Power minister Aroop Biswas who supervised the holy dip, said that this time due to the pandemic the turnout was much less and that it’s around a quarter of the turnout in comparison to 2021.

Sashi Panja

, state minister, said, “There were 1,500 CCTV cameras monitoring the pilgrims. Drones were measuring the density of people at a particular spot on the beach.”