Efforts on to make Ganga Sagar Mela plastic waste-free: Subrata

As lakhs of pilgrims will take the holy dip on ‘Makar Sankranti’ on Saturday, Bengal Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Subrata Mukherjee on Friday said this year’s Gangasagar Mela is declared as ‘Green Mela’ and efforts are on make it plastic waste-free.

“Altogether 8,200 toilets have been set up by the district administration as the Gangasagar Mela, 2017 has been declared as ‘Green Mela’ this year and efforts are made to make it plastic waste-free,” Mukherjee said.

Speaking about the final arrangements, Mukherjee said the state government was providing all kinds of support to people coming to attend the Mela from across the country.

“State administration is always active to tackle any untoward incident,” the Minister said.

Mukherjee also said six lakh people have visited the Mela so far and around 15 to 16 lakh people were likely to attend it till Sunday.

A total of 40 ambulances have been kept ready for providing medical assistance to the pilgrims, besides deployment of security personnel in large number, he said.

Altogether 155 CCTV cameras have been installed and a drone was also in action to maintain security at the fairgrounds, the minister added.

No untoward incident was reported as yet, except some arrests for small crimes, police said.