The district administration has started round of meetings with police and officials concerned of various departments in preparation for the Neelkanth Mahadev Kanwar Mela held in the month of Shrawan (Sawan) (July-August).
The meeting, which was held on Sunday in the hall on the Neelkanth Mahadev temple premises, was presided over by the Pauri District Magistrate, Chandra Shekhar Bhatt, and attended by the Pauri district Senior Superintendent of Police , Nivedita Kukreti Kumar. The district SSP also visited the Neelkanth Mahadev Mela area inspecting the entry and exit points, among other aspects.
The DM directed the officials concerned to strictly ensure that no bhandara (free community feast) is organised anywhere within the Neelkanth Mahadev Kanwar area.
Addressing the departmental officials, Bhatt instructed them to make sure that all the necessary works and arrangements including route maintenance work, supply of drinking water and the supply of electricity are completed on time to prevent any inconvenience to the visitors or disorder in the management of the pilgrimage and related activities.
Timely completion of works and other necessary measures should be taken to ensure that the Kanwar Mela passes off peacefully without any disturbance and to facilitate provisions for the visitors in a manner better than the arrangements in the previous year, stressed the district magistrate.
Bhatt directed staff of the Public Works Department at Dugadda and the Asian Development Bank to ensure that all the roads are well maintained, in addition to which he also directed officials of the district Panchayat and Forest department to maintain the bridle path for the pilgrimage ensuring timely removal of debris and other hindrances on the route. Officials of the medical and health department were instructed to ensure deployment of ambulance facility at the designated spot along with medical teams carrying sufficient quantities of life saving medicine and other aids.
Further, the District Magistrate directed officials of the Jal Sansthan to facilitate proper drinking water supply and make provision of water tankers. Addressing officials of the power corporation, he directed them to ensure proper supply of electricity sans disruption during the mela period.
The departmental official concerned of Tehri district was directed to maintain supply of electricity to the Garudchatti area. Considering the probability of chance encounters between the visiting people and wild animals, the district magistrate instructed the forest department to deploy its teams on the motor road and bridle path to mitigate incidence of human-wildlife conflict during the mela period.
He issued strict instructions for ensuring that no bhandara is held in the Neelkanth mela area. Departmental officials were also directed officials to deploy four mechanical excavators at identified spots for necessary use during landslides and other scenarios requiring the use of heavy machinery along with drivers and fuel in sufficient quantity.
When the local taxi union representative recalled and appreciated the traffic arrangements made during the mela period in the previous year, the district SSP informed that the same traffic plan and one-way traffic will be implemented this year.
He further directed all the officials to maintain coordination with the lakshman Jhoola police station in charge while also adding that the district Panchayat will not set barrier at Garudchatti on the last three days of the mela. Representatives of various departments concerned, district and Nagar Panchayat and office bearers of the local business fraternity were also among those who attended the meeting.