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Ensure clean, safe Chhath for devotees: U.P. CM to officers
Our endeavour should be to provide maximum facilities to every fasting devotee so that the festival is conducted smoothly, Yogi Adityanath said at a high-level meeting convened to review preparations for the festival
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday gave directives to officers to make all necessary arrangements well in time for the devotees at all Chhath ghats on the occasion of “Chhath Mahaparv”. Yogi was presiding over a high-level meeting convened to review preparations for Chhath on October 30 and 31. The four-day festival, which started on Friday, will end on Monday. He said east Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have a specific tradition of Chhath festival.
“Our endeavour should be to provide maximum facilities to every fasting devotee so that the festival is conducted smoothly. This year, with the message of ‘Clean and Safe Chhath’, all arrangements should be made as per the needs of the people,” the CM said.
A large number of devotees take part in “Chhath Mahaparv” with their family members and systematic arrangements for public facilities, including cleanliness, security, adequate lighting, parking, mobile toilets, and drinking water on the ‘ghats’ should be made, he said.
In view of tradition of offering “Arghya” (offering of water) to the setting and the rising sun on the occasion, Yogi said there should be adequate lighting around the river ghats and uninterrupted power supply should be ensured during the festival.
He said safe areas should be marked keeping in mind the depth of the river and health camps should be set up near Chhath ghats. He said there should be a system for testing dengue, fever and various water-borne diseases. Yogi said the women observing the fast stand for a long time in cold water and keeping this in view proper first aid arrangements should be made to deal with any emergency situation.
The CM said there should be adequate availability of water in rivers, ponds and other reservoirs on which there is a tradition of Chhath Puja. He said teams of state disaster response force/ national disaster response force (SDRF/NDRF) should be deployed for any emergency. He said in view of security, police, including women police, should be deployed at the place of worship and male cops should also be deployed in civil dress.
The chief minister said a public address system should be arranged at every major place where Chhath Puja takes place. He said a helpdesk should also be set up to help young children who get separated from their families. Yogi said special attention should be paid to traffic management at these places and there should be proper arrangements for parking.
He said a tradition of fireworks during Chhath Puja was also there. He said respecting the faith of the people, their safety should be taken care of and the fireworks should be away from the crowd.
The CM said additional buses should be deployed in the districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh to take people home. He said administration and police must cooperate with people coming from other states. Yogi said the state government was committed to providing quality medical facilities to every citizen of the state. He said the number of patients with dengue and other diseases was increasing in the past few days.
The CM said all the medical colleges, district hospitals, primary and community health centres besides other high-level institutions were well resourced and the people should be benefited from them. He said reports of misbehaviour with patients would not be tolerated at all.
Deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak, public works department minister Jitin Prasad, transport minister Dayashankar Singh, urban development Arvind Sharma and Jal Shakti minister Swatantra Dev Singh were present in the meeting.
