Jamshedpur gears up for Chhath, cleaning of ghats begins

Jamshedpur, Oct 21: The steel city is gearing up for the Chhath festival. The administration has sprung into action to clean up ghats that, after a whole year of neglect and lack of any care or upkeep, will need an army of workers toiling round the clock to make it usable and safe for devotees. A delegation recently inspected different ghats.

Sources informed that DC ordered authorities to carry cleanliness drives at different ghats.  Administration has called the corporates like Tata Steel UISL to provide manual and machinery assistance to the administrative officials in carrying out the exercise before the festival. “We have asked all the socially responsible corporate institutions to extend their cooperation in carrying out the drive,” said an official.

Particularly, Tata Steel UISL has been asked to provide electricity and make lighting arrangements in the low lying areas of the city, or for that matter, at the approaching paths to the two rivers.

The most important task before the administration is to barricade the danger zone and stop the devotees and revellers from breaching into that area. In the light of past incidents of drowning the administration has got serious with this issue and has taken firm measures in this regard particularly, in Mango, Sonari and Kadma where the possibility of accidents are high.

Meanwhile officials of Chhath Ghat Committee said that people take bath in water tanks and rivers and therefore it is essential that the cleaning work of these water bodies is completed on time. “This year the situation is just the opposite so we are making adequate arrangements to make the festival an incident free celebration,” said a district administration official.

Meanwhile, administration will be deploying trained swimmers and lifeguards along with paddle boats at different points on Subarnarekha and Kharkai river during chhath festivity.  Danger spots would be demarcated and all ghats would be barricaded.