Sheeghra Darshan fee doubled as Baidyanath Dham temple expects a sea of devotees on New Year

Dumka: A massive gathering of devotees is expected at Baba Baidyanath Dham temple in Deoghar and Basukinath temple in Dumka on Thursday. Devotees from Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal are expected to arrive at these shrines in numbers and seek blessings of the deity for a prosperous year ahead.Besides the temples, popular tourist destinations in the temple town, such as B Ed College Road, Nehru Park, Tower Chowk, Shivganga and nearby areas are also expected to witness heavy footfall."The numbers are expected to touch 2 lakhs over the two days," an official said."Magistrates have been appointed, CCTV surveillance has been strengthened, and special traffic control arrangements have been made. Separate entry and exit routes have been fixed for better crowd management to avoid any untoward incident," said Deoghar subdivisional officer (Civil) Ravi Kumar.Baidyanath Dham temple management said general devotees will be allowed from 5 am on Thursday. However, officials on Wednesday asked the devotees to remain calm and move in orderly fashion to avoid chaos.Keeping the expected rush in mind, the temple administration has revised the fee for the ‘Sheeghra Darshan’ (quick darshan) coupon for January 1. While the usual fee is Rs 300, it has doubled to Rs 600 for New Year’s Day.However, the arrangement for darshan through the general queue will continue as usual.Similar arrangements have also been ensured at Basukinath Dham temple, another famous Shiva temple in Dumka, to manage crowds on the first day of New Year.