This story is from August 12, 2016

Glitch-free, green Kumbh to remember

Glitch-free, green Kumbh to remember
(PTI photo)
Nashik: The entire Ramkund in Nashik and Kushawarth in Trimbakeshwar was brightly illuminated and traditional aarti performed for the Godavari river by priests before the process to lower the Dharma Dhwaja, the religious flag of Kumbh Mela, began on Thursday evening.
The year-long Simhastha Kumbh Mela at Nashik officially concluded on Thursday with the lowering of the ceremonial flag hoisted by Ganga Godavari Purohit Sangh on July 14, 2015.
While the flag of Vaishnav clan will be lowered in the Ram Kund premises, the 62.5kg copper flag of Shaiva tradition will be lowered at Trimbakeshwar.
The Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) and Trimbakeshwar Municipal Council cleaned up the locations where the flag lowering ceremony was to took place. Kumbh, one of the biggest Hindu religious congregation, had around 1.7 crore pilgrims taking holy dip on three main Parvani days.
"Now, we will have to wait for another 12 years for the Kumbh," said Pandurang Joshi, a senior citizen, who has experienced four Kumbh Melas in his life. Joshi said the mega religious congregation is a part and parcel of the life in the Nashik.
"Kumbh has changed over the years. The government officials deserve a pat on their backs for making this a successful event. This year, we had more educated people, foreigners and youth experiencing the Kumbh. They looked at the event and the country with a different perspective," said Janaki Devarajan, a private tutor.
Many developmental works like road construction, which included ring roads, four new bridges, 200-bed hospital an extension of civil hospital, 100-bed new NMC hospital at Tapovan, a permanent welcome gate at Tapovan, new ghats were constructed for the Kumbh Mela. The river and the ghats were cleaned up during the Kumbh.

"The past one-and-a-half years was spent in organising Kumbh. Overall, it was an excellent event with good crowd and resource management. We are preparing an administrative report on it. It will be helpful for the next Kumbh. With the Green Kumbh concept, we have set a benchmark on how such events should be organised," said divisional commissioner Eknath Dawale.
Green kumbh was observed for the first time and the entire city joined hands with activists and officials to make it a success. The clean glistening ghats in the city were a sight to remember. Activists ensured that the waste did not pollute the river and distributed cotton bags to the devotees.
"This Kumbh gave immense source of professional satisfaction having ensured safe and secure event. We were also able to give spiritually enriching experience to every devotee. Every devotee was able to take the dip within half an hour of entering the spot. There was not a single scratch or injury or missing person. We had 1.7 crore pilgrims over the three parvanis but the crowd was managed very well," said commissioner of police S Jaganathan.
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