The Mela administration has claimed to take a dip in the Sangam of 5.10 lakh devotees till evening. In the early morning, the devotees started moving towards the Sangam with the bundle of faith on their heads. People kept moving towards the Sangam amidst the temperature dropping to 6.04 degree Celsius with chants of Har Har Ganga. On one side bathing and on the other side on both the banks of the fallen holy Ganga, efforts were made to earn virtue by donating food and clothes. Somewhere cheers kept echoing and somewhere auspicious wishes were made by lighting the flame of lamps.
On Friday, on Paush Purnima, food fields were opened at more than three dozen places in the camps of saints and Kalpavasis. Along with this, food donation fairs were also organized at various places. Apart from Khak Chowk, Dandibada, long queues were seen in food fields for bhog-prasad on Upper Sangam Marg.
Dip on one side and tea, breakfast and food on the other side went on throughout the day. Thousands of devotees received prasad at K Om Namah Shivay Baba’s camp located on Upper Sangam Marg. Annakshetras were inaugurated simultaneously at many places in the presence of Gurudev, the Director of Annakshetra. In these food fields, officers, employees and businessmen were also engaged in cleaning the utensils from the removal of leaves. Meladhikari Arvind Chauhan also reached this Annakshetra. This food field will continue day and night till Maghi Purnima.
On the other hand, Annakshetra has also opened in the camp of Gopal Das Maharaj of Tapaswinagar on Mahavir Marg. Kheer, poori and vegetables were served in it. Poori-vegetables were served to the devotees in Mauni Baba’s camp as well. On the other hand, the Annakshetra is being run by Swami Brahmashram in Charkhi Dadri camp located in Sector V. Here hundreds of Dandi monks as well as devotees took prasad. Similarly, in the food fields opened in other camps, people are making life blessed by washing dishes and doing service.
Tight security arrangements were made at Magh Mela on Friday on Paush Purnima. Monitoring was done with 155 CCTV cameras at various places of the Mela area including Sangam Nose. Along with Police and PAC, Anti Terrorist Squad was also deployed in the fair. Who kept on doing reconnaissance in search of suspects. Along with crowd management, the security of the devotees was a major issue for the police at the Magh Mela. As the number of devotees was less as expected, there was no challenge regarding crowd management on Friday, but special vigilance was taken in view of security.
Altogether 155 CCTV cameras were installed at different places in the Mela area. The live feed from these cameras was monitored through the Integrated Command and Control Center (iTriplex). Police personnel were deployed in three shifts at Itripalsi. These policemen continuously kept an eye on every nook and corner of the Mela area from Sangam Nose. Along with PAC, ATS commandos were also deployed in the fair. Police Commissioner Ramit Sharma along with other officers reached the fair in the morning and took stock of the security arrangements.