Sagar Island: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has renewed her demand seeking the Centre should declare the Ganga Sagar Mela as one of the national heritage fairs as some one crore pilgrims from across the country gather annually to have a holy dip in the confluence of Bay of Bengal and the Ganga in front of Kapil Muni Ashram.
” The Centre supports the Kumbh Mela and spend crores of rupees but neglect the Ganga Sagar Mela where some one crore people come for pilgrimage and offer prayer at the Kapil Munis Ashram after having a holy in the confluence of Sagar Island,” Banerjee said on Monday evening after reviewing the preparedness to accommodate millions of devotees and their safety.
Banerjee was on a two-day official visit along with some of her senior ministers and state top civil and police officials to ensure proper well being of the pilgrims and their safe return to home.
She said the state government has been doing its best and spending crores of rupees every year so that pilgrims, basically aged, could be accommodated nicely in this wintry month, stay happily and safely return their homes.
She said the devotees come after arduous travelling in this riverine remotest district of South 24 Parganas and stay one or two nights after having ritual.
She said her government has been asking the Centre for long erection of a bridge on Muri Ganga to ease the travelling to the Kapil Muni Ashram but nothing was materialized so far.
She said her government has sanctioned Rs 1,500 crore for a bridge connecting Sagar Island and this could be completed in three years time.
She said despite the resource crunch, her government was determined to minimise the problem of the pilgrims, who come not only from across the country.
The chief minister also visited the Bharat Sevashram Sangha and exchanged greetings with the Maharajs and later offered prayer at the Kapil Muni Ashram.
Elaborate security arrangements have been made with deployment of about 12000 personnel and set up CCTV cameras over 1000 to monitor every move of the
visitors right from BabuGhat in Kolkata.
She also informed that she put a suggestion to the Kapil Muni Ashram authorities to spend 25 per cent of the donations received by them for stabilisation of the banks to tackle the problem of erosion.
