CM set to open Rath Yatra festival at ISKCON; cops notch up security
Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is set to inaugurate the Rath Yatra festival at ISKCON Temple at Albert Road near Minto Park in Kolkata on Sunday.
She is expected to offer Aarti to Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra and pull the chariots of the deities. There will be different functions at the temple premises.
After Banerjee inaugurates the Rath Yatra festival in the city, the three chariots that are currently stationed on Gurusaday Road will travel 6 km on the day of Rath Yatra to reach Brigade Parade ground via Hungerford Street, AJC Bose Road, Sarat Bose Road, Hazra Road, Syama Prasad Mookerjee Road, Ashutosh Mukherjee Road, Chowringhee Road, Exide crossing, JL Nehru Road.
Thousands of people are expected to turn up to take part in the Rath Yatra. People from different walks of life started pouring into the city from Saturday morning to attend the biggest Rath Yatra festival in Kolkata.
The city police have also made an elaborate arrangement to avoid any untoward incident during the Rath Yatra festival on Sunday.
Steps have also been taken to ensure that no traffic congestion happens when the Rath passes through the important thoroughfares.
The top brass of the Kolkata Police already held a meeting in this connection and chalked out a plan to divert vehicles through other roads. Additional policemen will be on duty for the security of the devotees who will take part in the Rath Yatra. Policemen in plainclothes and women cops will also be deployed.
Kolkata police have already alerted all the police stations asking them to deploy additional forces along the route where the Ratha would be taken out. In Kolkata, as many as 74 Raths (chariots) are taken out, of which around 7 are big ones.
Around 1,500 police forces would be deployed across the city and a senior police officer in the rank of Deputy Commissioner would be deployed on the routes where the chariots would be taken out.
Radharaman Das, vice president of ISKCON Kolkata said that the Rath Yatra route stretches 6 to 7 kilometres from the ISKCON Kolkata Temple and the ‘Ulta Rath Yatra,’ will follow on July 15. He also added that around 20 lakh devotees attended the programme last year. The ISKCON Kolkata is assuming that around 2.3 to 2.4 million devotees may attend the event. This year’s celebration holds special significance as it commemorates the 53rd edition of the iconic chariot festival, coinciding with the 150th Birth Anniversary of His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Prabhupada Maharaj.
