VARANASI, july 30, 2013: Amidst tight security, first Monday of Shrawan passed off peacefully. Due to falling of the months of Ramjan and Shrawan this festive period is being considered as highly sensitive. Keeping it in view tight security arrangements were made in and around the district while traffic plans were also followed strictly. The vehicles of police as well as VIPs were also not allowed to reach up to Gyanvapi point from Maidagin while timing for the entry of VIPs in Kashi Vishwanath temple was also fixed. The police and paramilitary forces were extra vigilant in mixed populated localities and the markets where the buying for the forthcoming festival of Eid is gaining momentum.

Though the cops were in alert mode, but the over-crowding near Chhattadwar for few minutes in morning hours led to stampede like situation. But timely intervention of officials helped in controlling the situation immediately. Two pilgrims including Chameli Devi of Manduadih and Asha Devi of Rajghat suffered minor injuries in this incident. But after this incident the movement of pilgrims and Kanwariyas remained smooth at this point. Madhu (40), a native of Lohta also suffered injuries when a wheel of the motorcycle of her husband fell into an opened manhole at Godowlia.

Keeping the past experiences of last year's Shrawan month and Mahakumbh, when lakhs of devotees queued up for entering Kashi Vishwanath temple until the festive period ended, the district administration and police had made elaborate arrangements for security and crowd control. However, the crowd of Kanwariys and other pilgrims remained cooperatively very low. Till 5 pm over 90,000 pilgrims and Kanwariyas had entered the sanctum sanatorum of Kashi Vishwanath temple. Due to the same reasons the barricading installed for queuing up had also become vacant till afternoon.

Apart from Kashi Vishwanath the gathering of devotees at other prominent temples of Lord Shiva including Markandeya Mahadeo at Kaithi, Sarangdeo, Mrityunjaya Mahadeo, Kedareshwar, Mrityunjaya Mahadeo and others was also less.

The priests at ghats along Ganga and temples held the timely arrival of monsoon, due to which early sowing of paddy crop started in the region, responsible for this low turnout and on the basis of their past years experience they said that whenever the crowd becomes low on first Monday the gathering remains high on last two Mondays of the month as rural masses prefer to head towards Kashi Vishwanath temple after completing the sowing. It was also considered that as Mahakumbh had concluded four months back, when lakhs of devotees thronged the city, its effects on Shrawan month was not unexpected.

Though the crowd was low at temples, the precautionary measures initiated by the district administration like ensuring closure of educational institutions on Monday helped in maintaining smooth vehicular movement on those roads where no restrictions were imposed. The social and voluntary organisations also not left any stone unturned to facilitate the Kanwariyas and pilgrims by holding camps to serve food articles, water and medicine.

Source: The Times of India, DT. July 30, 2013.