While the whole city appeared to be drenched in Chhath Puja preparations on Saturday, Ranchi district administration and police are all alert to ensure a safe and secure Chhath Puja this year as elaborate arrangements have been made across the city for security and convenience of the devotees. City SP Kishore Kaushal said on Saturday that the police were ready to tackle any unwanted situation, if any, when devotees will offer Arghya to the Sun God to observe Chhath puja on Sunday evening and Monday morning at over 60 water bodies within the city area.
“We have deployed 30 male and six female swimmers at 34 big ponds, where around 15-20 each, according to requirement, policemen will remain alert to handle law and order situation. One CO rank administrative official as Magistrate and Senior Inspector rank official as Police In-Charge have also been deployed at big water bodies like Bada Talab, Button Talab, Dhurva and Kanke Dam,” said City SP Kishore Kaushal.
He also said that apart from 4 teams of NDRF, the police will have at least two boats ready at six large ponds including Bada Talab and Kanke Dam, and one each at two comparatively smaller ponds. “These eight ponds are sensitive in our parameters, and we are taking steps there,” said Kaushal.
Commuters and vehicles passing through city will have to bear a little on Sunday and first half of the Monday, as traffic routes have been changed for Chhath puja.
Traffic SP Sanjay Ranjan Singh said that barricades would be put up at Randhir Verma Chowk covering the road from the SSP's residence, Zakir Hussain Park and ATI. He added that the barricades would also be placed at Chandni Chowk in Kanke, Piska More, Shalimar market, Shahid Maidan, Jail Road, lalpur Chowk, Sarjana Chowk, Mahavir Temple, Dhurwa Golchakkar, Ram Mandir Chutia and a number of other important places so that Chhath devotees could have no problem at offering their prayers.
This year, the evening arghya is scheduled for Sunday and the morning arghya is scheduled for Monday. On Sunday, the barricades will be kept in place from 2-8 pm and 2-8 am on Monday. Apart from diverting routes, the traffic department will also install public address systems at a couple of places.
Kaushal said that though there were no specific inputs, the police were having close eyes on movements of anti-social elements keeping what happened in Bhopal a couple of Days ago. “The city has remained a sensitive place as far as sleeper cell of banned organisation SIMI is concerned. We have not received any specific inputs from that angle, yet we are extra cautious from our part,” added City SP.