Varanasi. These days the number of devotees and tourists is continuously increasing in the religious city of Kashi. Police Commissioner Mohit Aggarwal has issued several important instructions in view of the increasing crowd. In order to ensure safety and smooth movement, the entire area from Maidagin to Godaulia has been declared a “no-vehicle zone”, where only foot traffic will be allowed and police vehicles will also be banned. “There is an appeal to the devotees to cooperate with the police administration by following the prescribed rules.”
About four to five lakh devotees are visiting every day, in view of which intensive deployment of 200 additional police forces, PAC companies and surveillance arrangements has been done in the temple and surrounding areas.
Aggarwal said that taking a strict stance on the problem of illegal encroachment and road jam from Godaulia to Dashashwamedh Ganga Ghat, a case has been registered against 10 shopkeepers and directed for legal action. In order to maintain traffic safety and law and order, instructions have been given to run a special campaign against those who drink alcohol on the roadside or in vehicles, and conduct intensive checking and strict legal action.
Keeping in mind the possible additional crowd during Magh Mela, preparations for crowd management have been made on the lines of Mahakumbh. Security and traffic arrangements have also been effectively implemented in Kashi region. In order to ensure orderly and safe darshan, barricading has been done at various places on the main roads in and around the temple premises, so that queued traffic is maintained and chaos does not arise. Intensive checking of suspicious objects in sensitive areas is being done with the bomb disposal team, so that any potential threat can be neutralized in time.
In order to ensure the safety of the devotees in the Ganga river area, a complete ban has been imposed on overloading of boats and strict instructions have been given to the concerned authorities to make all the passengers compulsorily wear life jackets during boat operation.