The Prayagraj Mela Authority (PMA) will be convening a meeting of saints of all Hindu monastic orders on July 8 to seek their opinion regarding the preparations for Mahakumbh-2025.
Mela Adhikari Vijay Kiran Anand will be present in the meeting to be chaired by divisional commissioner and chairman of PMA Vijay Vishwas Pant. Till now, the tradition was to invite Akhil Bharatiya Akhada Parishad in this meeting held in the run up to every edition of Kumbh and Mahakumbh.
But after the death of the then chief mahant Narendra Giri and president of Akhil Bharatiya Akhada Parishad (ABAP), the parishad was split into two factions.
In such a situation, the district administration has decided to invite two members each from all the 13 recognised akhadas instead of issuing a general invitation. Pant said: “During the meeting, talks will be held with the saints of all the 13 akhadas to know their needs and concerns, if any, will be addressed.” He said this time, general invite to ABAP has not been sent due to split in the parishad. “A separate letter has been sent to all the 13 akhadas by the authority. In this they have been requested to send two members each to the meeting,” Pant said. ADM (Kumbh Mela) Vivek Chaturvedi said the akhadas have confirmed that they will be sending their representative to the meeting.
The state tourism department had already announced the dates of opening of Mahakumbh-2025 and ‘shahi snans’ (royal baths) through hoardings in June 2023 in sharp departure from the past when the dates were announced after a meeting of the mela authority with top seers of ABAP. The announcement had upset the seers.
Chief patron of Juna Akhada and secretary of ABAP, Mahant Hari Giri, had expressed his displeasure and said: “If the dates are to be announced only on the basis of ‘Panchang’ (Hindu astronomical calendar), then even a common man can decide and announce the dates of Shahi Snans for the next 1,200 years. What is the need for us? Let the mela authorities and the tourism department announce what they wish, we saints are not accepting their dates because it is ‘one-sided’ decision.”