Lucknow : The Prayag Kumbh, is the world’s largest gathering of humanity, which started in Allahabad on Monday on the auspicious day of Makar Sankranti.
While about 5 lakh people took a holy dip at Sangam from sunrise till afternoon. But the four Shankaracharyas from Jyotirmath Badrika Ashram (Badrinath), Sharda Peeth (Dwarka, Gujarat), Jagannath Puri (Orissa) and Shringeri Peeth, Karnataka- highest Hindu religious leaders, kept away from the event as the mela administration failed to allot them a common place and not four different areas for Chatuspath. Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Maharaj said that even as the polluted waters of Ganga and Yamuna were keeping the devotees away, the administration had decided against giving them a common place. He said that when they did not get the land, there was no point in attending the Kumbh.
This year’s Kumbh is in the 12-yearly cycle and this year it is considered to be very auspicious due to a planetary alignment that takes once every 147 years.
However, the Mela administration echoed what the Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had said during a visit to the Kumbh area a few days ago – allotment of common land for the four seers was not possible now.
Officers were said to be in touch with the Shankaracharyas and efforts were being made to request then to come back for the Kumbh. While the state government has made an elaborate arrangements for the big event, visitors on Monday, the first major bathing day – found work incomplete, especially related to the tents and cottages erected to accommodate the visitors.
There were many complaints regarding water supply, toilets and urinals. Whiles scores of journalists have descended upon the venue, many of them had not received the passes despite having applied weeks ago.
However, the police and security arrangements.
It is expected that this year’s Kumbh might witness the turn-out of as many as 10 crore people during the 55-day event. Significantly, the last Kumbh in 2001, about seven crore people having visited the Mela.
