Thousands of devotees celebrated Chhath Puja on the banks of the Yamuna River, lakes and canals in the national Capital on Sunday afternoon to pay obeisance to the Sun God on the third day of the festival. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Cabinet Ministers visited several Chhath ghats and greeted people on the occasion. Water Minister Kapil Mishra took a boat ride to take stock of the preparations.
East Delhi Mayor Satya Sharma visited the ghats under the EDMC jurisdiction and greeted people on the occasion. “The first day of ‘Arghya’ went off peacefully with large number of people gathering at Geeta Colony and Sonia Vihar ghats. The crowd is much bigger than last year, but we have made adequate arrangements,” she said.
As part of the four-day festival, people offer prayers at more than 50 major sites across the national Capital. Thousands of devotees thronged Qudsia Ghat, Wazirabad Ghat, Rambagh Ghat, Kalindi Kunj Ghat, Sonia Vihar and Geeta Colony ghats.
Ghats in North Delhi had CCTV cameras to monitor the crowd. Makeshift pandals, sandbanks, floodlights and barricades were put up on the ghats’ premises. Traffic police said traffic situation this time is better compared to last year, when there were huge snarls on roads. Apart from a few areas surrounding Kalindi Kunj Ghat and ITO, traffic was smooth in the other areas.
“Since Chhath Puja fell on a Sunday, there were no school buses. Many people preferred to stay indoors because of smog. We could manage the traffic situation,” said a senior traffic police officer.
The age-old tradition of paying obeisance to the Sun God, is observed mainly by the people from Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh or Poorvanchalis. The national Capital has a sizeable population of people hailing from these two States.
The puja starts with the ritual of ‘Nahai-Khai’, in which devotees prepare traditional food after bathing. The second day is ‘Kharna’, during which devotees observe a day-long fast which ends after sunset.
On the third day, the devotees stand in water and offer ‘Arghya’ to the setting sun. On the final day of the puja, devotees and their friends and relatives assemble at the river bank before sunrise and offer ‘Arghya’ to the rising sun. With an aim to woo the Bihar-UP migrant community that is seen as a major voting population in the city, Kejriwal had announced that ‘kachha’ Chhath ghats will be made into ‘pucca’ ones by next year.
Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay, MP Manoj Tiwari, Ramesh Bidhuri, Meenakshi lekhi, Maheish Girri, Pravesh Verma, Udit Raj along with the leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta attended Chhath Puja functions held all over Delhi. Upadhyay said that Chhath Puja is a festival when devotees pay respect to nature too. The worship of Surya Bhagwan standing in river water by the devotees is a respect of the nature. Even the Vedas refer to Surya Puja indicating that a festival like Chhath existed even in the Adikaal.