Month-long ‘Shravani Mela’ kicked off from Dumma on Bihar-Jharkhand border on Saturday as thousands of devotees embarked on the journey to Baidyanath Temple at Deoghar to offer holy water of Ganga River to lord Shiva. The fest was inaugurated by Godda MP, Nishikant Dubey as Chief Minister; Raghubar Das could not reach the place of ceremony due to inclement weather due to intense cyclonic activity over Bay of Bengal.
Notably, Dumma is a transit camp for Kanwarias—devotees carrying holy water— especially put up to make them rest during the course of the journey to Deoghar. The inaugural function was attended by Agriculture Minister, Randhir Singh and Deputy Mayor, Nitu Devi among others.
The sanctum sanctorum of the temple was opened for the devotees after ritual worship in the morning and ‘argha’ system was introduced which will continue till the end of the month of Shravan.
Keeping in view the threat to the fest and to thwart any subversive activity, Deoghar district administration has decided to station 65 Deputy Superintendents of Police, 44 Inspectors, 672 police officials, 2400 armed forces, 5400 canon party and 1320 jawans of Home Guard besides, officials of Central Reserve Police Force and National Disaster Response Force at every nook and corner in the city.
Meanwhile, a website was also inaugurated to facilitate live darshan of the rituals performed at the Baidyanath Temple. The website will upload live feeds of the activities at the temple for the millions of netizens hooked to the World Wide Web. The website was also inaugurated by Dubey as Principal Secretary, Urban Development, Arun Kumar Singh and Deputy Commissioner, Deoghar, Ameet Kumar witnessed the leap of divinity on to the virtual space.