PATNA: In a move to ensure the safety of the Chhath devotees who offer prayers at different ghats of river Ganga in Patna, the state government has declared around 22 ghats unsafe and put barricades to prevent the entry of people.
Plying of boats in the Ganga has also been banned from October 30 to November 3 for the safety of devotees.
According to Patna DM Kumar Ravi, proper barricading has been done at all the 22 unsafe ghats in Patna and deployment of cops would be made to prevent the people moving towards these ghats during the Chhath festivals from November 1 to 3.
Besides this, the Patna administration has also launched ‘Chhatha –App’ on which will provide all the details on ghats, traffics and other public information. Adalat ghat, Buddha ghat, LCT ghat,
Anta ghat are the prominent ghats that have been declared unsafe.
“All basic civic amenities like cloth changing rooms, toilets, medical facilities and parking slots have been made available,” Ravi said.
Meanwhile, the state police headquarters has provided units of Rapid Action Force (RAF) besides 2225 lathi-force in Patna, Bhagalpur, Aurangabad and Munger and
other districts for crowd management.
The deployments of police in huge numbers would be made at ghats in order to avoid stampede like occurrence due to heavy rush of devotees to ghats. In 2012 at Adalat ghat (this year declared unsafe), several people were killed in a stampede.