Around eight lakh devotees took a holy dip in the Ganga in Haridwar on the occasion of Makar Sankranti on Tuesday. Braving the cold weather in the morning hours, devotees from various parts of Uttarakhand and other States thronged the Ganga ghats, particularly Har-Ki-Pauri since early morning and took dips in the Ganga. The devotees offered Ganga water to the sun after taking holy dip.
Garhwal Range Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Amit Sinha said that the religious bath of Makar Sankranti went off peacefully in Haridwar and around eight lakh devotees took a holy dip in the Ganga. In view of large number of devotees turning up to take the dip in the Ganga on Tuesday, security was stepped up in Haridwar with the deployment of adequate police force at various places.
The mela area was divided into five zones and 14 sectors and police were put on alert at various places like hotels, bus stations, banks, railway station, Dharmshalas, ghats, temples and other religious places in the district.
Circle officer was made zone in-charge while inspector or police station-incharge was sector in-charge. Four Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSPs), five inspectors/sub-inspectors, 29 sub-inspectors, 13 head constables, 212 constables, two sub-inspectors(traffic police), three head constables(traffic), 30 traffic police, two platoons of Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) jawans, two fire tenders were deployed at various places in the district. The bomb disposal squad deployed for the occasion checked sensitive areas, keeping tabs on important places, DIG added.
The Haridwar police said that to avoid untoward incident at Ganga ghats, four teams of water police. Police had also drafted traffic plan and police were deployed at various places to resolve the traffic problem.