In the wake of revised guidelines for Chhath festival at water-bodies, the government has directed local administration to ensure that devotees follow Covid-19 protocols.
As devotees are set to surge at ponds, lakes and rivers to celebrate the festival on Friday and Saturday Ranchi police will use drone cameras at Chhath ghats to monitor crowds and to ensure that people cover their face with masks and they follow social distancing.
Across the capital city 50 magistrates, zonal magistrate and zonal inspector (five each) besides 1000 police personnel will be deployed at the Chhtah ghats. Equal number of policemen in plain clothes will be deployed at the ghats. Intensive patrolling will be done in residential areas to prevent cases of housebreak.
Special traffic arrangements have been done and around 300 traffic cops will be deployed to control traffic in Ranchi, which witnesses over five lakh crowds at the ghats.
Across the capital city there are identified 69 water bodies where devotees celebrate the festival. District administration has installed CCTV cameras.
Ranchi district administration has issued as many as eight emergency numbers that includes the contact number of Ranchi DS, SSP, SP (City), SP (Rural), besides SDM and SDO ranking officials.
At some important water bodies like Kanke dam, Ranchi Lake, Dhurwa dam and the NDRF team will be deployed for quick rescue operations. Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) too has made arrangements for devotees. RMC has deployed around 700 safai workers to clean ghats.
RMC has set-up a cloth changing room for devotees at these ghats. “As part of the Covid-19 protocol we have carried deep sanitization of ghats and we will continue it throughout on Friday and Saturday. Besides, we will also carry awareness drives among people to cover their face and maintain social distancing as part of precaution to defeat Covid-19,” said RMC health officer Kiran Kumari.