Chhath festival begins: Ghats spruced up, to have CCTV cams

The four-day Chhath festival that pays obeisance to the Sun god began on Friday with devotees performing the rituals, even as authorities made further arrangements to ensure sanitation and safety at various ghats in anticipation of huge crowd.

Day one is called ‘nahai-khai’ (bathing-eating ritual) when people observing the festival, take a dip in rivers or other water bodies, and then cook food on traditional chullah.

Day two is called ‘kharna’, when devotees cook ‘kheer’ and ‘roti’ which is then distributed as ‘prasad’.

The ghats witness massive crowd on last two days when people throng them for the offering (‘arghyas’) to the setting and rising sun in succession.

Civic authorities have spruced up the ghats and made arrangements while police and disaster management team are working on measures to ensure no untoward incident occurs.

North Delhi Mayor Sanjeev Nayyar on Friday inspected various ghats to assess the preparedness.

A number of ghats fall under the North Delhi Municipal Corporation’s Civil Lines Zone — Qudsia Ghat, Wazirabad Ghat, Rambagh Ghat, while Kalindi Kunj Ghat in South Delhi draws a major crowd on the last two days. In East Delhi, Sonia Vihar and Geeta Colony are some of the important ghats. The Mayor directed officials to further improve the sanitation and cleanliness on ghats. “60 temporary toilets are being developed on Qudsia Ghat for the convenience of the devotees. Mobile toilets would also be installed. Besides, levelling and other work on ghats are being done,” Nayyar said. Civic authorities said, fogging would be continued for twice a day, early morning and late evening, at the ghats. The Flood Control and Irrigation Department has also been be asked to clean the river. Municipal staff have been instructed to clear garbabe under the ISBT Bridge immediately. “We will have 17-18 designated parking places for people. There will be routine diversions in place on Ring Road,” Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Garima Bhatnagar said.