saturday, april23, 2016 (page 20) dailyexcelsior, jammu...

UJJAIN (MP), Apr 22:

Braving scorching heat, amultitude of sadhus along withtheir disciples chanting ‘Jai ShriRam’ took ‘shahi snan’ (royalbath) at Ramghat in Shipra riverhere this noon on the opening

day of the month-longSimhastha-Kumbh mela.

People drawn from differentparts of the country and abroadare taking part in the Kumbhmela, one of the largest congre-gations of Hindus, which for thefirst time is witnessing the par-

ticipation of the transgenders,who have put up an Akhara(temporary monastery) andannounced to take a holy dip atthe Gandharav Ghat of Shipraon May 9.

“I am overwhelmed to bepart of this awesome humangathering. I came here sinceyesterday,” George Sauuahq, aFrenchman said.

He said that he has come toIndia with a group of 12 personsfrom Paris.

“We made a point to standwitness to this mega event aftercoming to know about it,” hesaid as he scrambled to shootphotos of the sadhus in differenthues and attires at Ramghat.

Wheelchair-bound TervaniDevi (76) and her husband DurgaPrasad (82) came to Shipra, thathas been revived by pumping inthe Narmada water, for the occa-sion, to take a holy dip, all theway from Hyderabad.

Tervani said that she wasdelighted after taking the royalbath.

Congress General SecretaryDigvijay Singh also took a bathat Gaughat on the opening dayof the Simhastha.

At around 8.15 AM a stam-pede like situation was wit-nessed at Chhoti Pool area at theentrance of Ramghat when largenumber of seers in processionsdescended for the royal bath.

However, the situation wasbrought under control by theauthorities swiftly.

Bada Udasin Akhara PontiffRaghu Muni Maharaj along withothers squatted at Ramghat for awhile and protested against the

vehicular traffic in the mela area.He said that the vehicular

traffic was obstructing seers’way to the ghat. However, helifted his protest after govern-ment officials intervene.

Earlier, the Kumbh melakicked off with Naga Sadhu ofJuna Akhara venturing into theriver around 5 AM. Their head,Avdheshnandji Maharaj, whocame in a huge procession tookthe ‘shahi snan’ amid tight secu-rity arrangements.

“As of now, all things aregoing on smoothly. Around25,000 security personnelincluding central forces havebeen deployed to conduct the‘shahi snan’,” Inspector Generalof Police, Ujjain, Madhu Kumarsaid at Ramghat at noon.

Meanwhile, lakhs of peoplethronged the roads leading to theghats of Shipra river and waitingin serpentine queues to take theroyal bath during the Melawhich is being held here after agap of 12 years.

Ujjain is also the abode ofLord Mahakaleshwar, one of the12 ‘jyotirlings’ in the country.

“Over five crore pilgrims areexpected to visit Ujjain andother holy places during theKumbh, for which elaboratesecurity and logistical arrange-ments have been made,”Madhya Pradesh Chief MinisterShivraj Singh Chouhan had saidlast evening on the eve of themela at Bhopal. (PTI)

SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 2016 (PAGE 20) DAILY EXCELSIOR, JAMMU

Scores of seers descend on Ujjain to take royal bath at Kumbh

PM to launch Rs 8K crscheme for free LPGconnections to poorNEW DELHI, Apr 22:

Prime Minister NarendraModi will on May 1 launch anambitious Rs 8,000 crorescheme to provide 5 crore freeLPG connections to BPL fami-lies using the money saved from1.13 crore cooking gas usersvoluntarily giving up their sub-sidies.

Modi will launch thePradhan Mantri UjjwalaYojana at Ballia in UttarPradesh on May 1 and do arepeat function at Dahod inGujarat on May 15.

Though ‘Give-it-Up’ cam-paign seeking the well-heeled tovoluntarily surrender cookinggas subsidies for one year waslaunched in January, 2015,Modi on March 27 last yearofficially launched the pro-gramme.(PTI)