Prayagraj: Selfie points, cleanliness messages, changing rooms, dedicated Kanwar path, elaborate barricading are few new features that district authorities have added for kanwariyas, who started arriving at Dashaswamedh ghat and Sangam to begin their journey for Kashi Vishwanath, Baba Baijnath dham, Padila Mahadev on the first day of Shrawan month on Thursday.Though the strength of Kanwariyas was not much on ghats on the first day of Shrawan month, cops are maintaining a tight vigil. The entire Kanwar yatra path has taken under surveillence with mobile police teams being assigned duties at static points.To ensure smooth arrangement for the kanwariyas, cops have already put elaborate security arrangements including five drones, a network of CCTVs , one-way reserved for kanwariyas’s free flow and Quick Response Teams (QRTs) in place. The number of policemen will be increased as the strength of kanwariyas swells in coming days.A senior cop told TOI, “With the beginining of Shrawan, traffic police authorities have restricted the movement of traffic on one lane of Shastri bridge for the kanwariyas. Special arrangements would be made on every Saturday to Monday when majority of kanwariyas would be leaving Varanasi to offer jalabhishek to lord Shiv during the ongoing Shrawan month.”Claiming that millions of kanwariyas from Prayagraj and adjoining districts arrive Sangam and Dashaswamedh ghat to fetch Ganga water to offer jalabhishek at Varanasi , cops on Thursday reviewed security arrangements to ensure foolproof security measures for kanwariyas.Cops of neighbouring Kaushambi, Pratapgarh and Fatehpur are too coordinating with their Prayagraj and Bhadohi counterparts.Every year, millions of Shiv dovotees assemble at Sangam and Daraganj ghat to take water from the Sangam and cover several km distance to different temples of Lord Shiv including the Padila Mahadeo temple in Tharwai (Trans-Ganga) , Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi and Baijnath Dham in Jharkhand.
