Varanasi: The Vindhyachal Temple in Mirzapur will remain open to devotees for 20 hours a day during Chaitra Navratri from Thursday, except for a 1-hour closure during each of the four daily aartis. Devotees will be prohibited from touching Maa Vindhyavasini’s feet during this period.Thousands of devotees gathered in and around the Vindhyachal corridor area ahead of the Chaitra Navratri Mela, which began on Wednesday midnight. Traffic diversions and restrictions were enforced to manage the crowd. Regarding the arrangements for devotees, Shri Vindhya Panda Samaj president Pankaj Dwivedi said that except during ‘mangala aarti’ (3 am to 4 am), ‘rajshri aarti’ (12 noon to 1 pm), ‘sandhya aarti’ (7 pm to 8 pm), and ‘badi aarti’ (9.30 pm to 10.30 pm), the doors of the sanctum sanctorum will remain opened for 20 hours. ‘Sparsh darshan’ will be prohibited during the Chaitra Navratri fair, he added.While devotees started flooding Vindhyachal town to seek blessings of the deity, the officials, who were issued strict directives by chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday to complete all arrangements promptly for the Vindhyachal Navratri fair, which was declared a state-level fair in 2018, DM, SP and nodal officer briefed police personnel and officials from other departments at Samford Public School to ensure the smooth and peaceful conduct of the event.The fair area has been divided into one super zone, 10 zones, and 21 sector zones. Officers on duty have been instructed to ensure devotees can safely visit Maa Vindhyavasini, Ashtabhuja, and Kali Khoh.
