Elaborate arrangements including a special traffic plan have been chalked out for Maghi Purnima on Wednesday and health personnel have been put on alert for the occasion when the month-long 'kalpavas', an integral tradition of the Maha Kumbh, comes to an end.
Rediff.com takes a look at the grand preparations ahead of the mega festival, just 16 days away, as pilgrims and god-men have already started congregating at the holy site.
A public interest litigation was moved before the Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court Tuesday, seeking a high-level judicial probe into Sunday's stampede at the Kumbh Mela that left 36 dead and 39 injured.
During this day, elated Hindu monks and pilgrims take holy dip in Ganges to wash away their sins and make offerings to the gods.
Over 70 lakh people took dip at the holy 'Sangam' on the last of the 'Shahi Snan' during the on-going Kumbh mela in Allahabad on Friday.
Yogi said Waqf boards have become a den of selfish interests as well as loot khasot (property grabbing), and have done little for the welfare of Muslims.
Bharatiya Janarta Party candidate Ramesh Bidhuri on Wednesday again targeted Delhi chief minister and his rival from Kalkaji seat Atishi, saying she was running around like a 'hirni' (doe) in the streets of the constituency ahead of assembly polls after doing little for the people for years.
With the surge in tourist footfalls to Varanasi in 2022, it almost rivals the arrivals in Agra and puts it way ahead of Prayagraj and Ayodhya.
Pilgrims at the ongoing Maha Kumbh mela in Allahabad faced a tough time on Wednesday due to the nationwide strike called by central trade unions which has brought movement of Uttar Pradesh roadways buses to a standstill.
A sea of pilgrims converged at Sangam for a holy dip on Friday on the occasion of Basant Panchami joined by ascetics belonging to various sects for their third and last Shahi Snan of Maha Kumbh, where a sadhu was killed in a fire in the wee hours.
'While suppression of information is acceptable for the government, the Opposition's efforts at pinning the government and its leaders is labeled anti-national,' points out Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Watch Kaalidhar Laapata because clean family-viewing films are getting scarcer by the week, recommends Deepa Gahlot.
They are protesting against the Centre's move to take over lands of Hindu muths and temples all over the country.
Security has been beefed up at all the sensitive places, including national capital New Delhi and Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, as a precautionary measure since early morning on Saturday after the execution of 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.
In the midst of the ongoing controversy over Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde's remarks on 'Hindu terror' and the offensive launched by the Bharatiya Janata Party and other Hindu organisations asking that the home minister be sacked, Congress president Sonia Gandhi will visit Allahabad for the ongoing Kumbh Mela which is currently on and has attracted crores of devotees. Renu Mittal reports.
The eight-week-long festival is beginning from Monday, in which thousands of devotees will bathe at the Sangam -- the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers.
Security has been tightened in Haridwar for the first day of the Shahi Snan (Royal Bath) on Friday, as thousands of devotees are expected to take a dip in the River Ganga to mark the festival of Maha Shivratri. Around 10,000 security personnel have been deployed in Haridwar to thwart any kind of untoward incident when devotees, including ash-covered Naga sadhus participate in the festivities
'They contest to ensure they win the election.'
The first 'shahi snan' of the ongoing Kumbh Mela began in Nashik on Saturday with thousands of devotees, including 'mahants' of various akhadas, thronging the ghats of the River Godavari to take the holy dip.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is finally off to United States to narrate the success story of the 2013 Kumbh Mela at the HarvardUniversityBusinessSchool on April 26.
Over two crore Hindu devotees took their cherished holy dip at the 'Sangam' in Allahabad on Sunday on 'Mauni Amavasya', widely believed to be the most auspicious of all days at the 55-day long Kumbh Mela.
The hanging of Afzal Guru has prompted the Uttar Pradesh government to beef up security in and around the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, where nearly two crore people are expected to be converging over the next 24 hours to take a dip on what is considered the 'most auspicious' day of the 55-day-long festival that began on January 14.
Inspired by the earnings of boat operators during the 2019 Ardh Kumbh, a boatman's family in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj took a bold entrepreneurial step during the recently concluded Mahakumbh Mela 2025, generating a staggering profit of Rs 30 crore.
Traditionally the biggest of all the sacred bathing days in the 50-day long Mela, Mauni Amavasya this time holds greater significance as it falls on a Monday and that too during the Kumbh - a rather rare combination on many accounts.
Four youths with suspected terror links who were allegedly conspiring to strike in the mela area were held by a joint team of Delhi Police Special Cell and Uttarakhand police on Tuesday night from Manglour town in Haridwar district.
In the wake of mounting pressure from Sangh outfits, the MP government may take a fresh decision on the fate of the marketing contract with a Lintas subsidiary for Simhastha Kumbh Mela in Ujjain.
Rishi Ajay Das, the founder of Kinnar Akhada, has expelled both Mamta Kulkarni and Acharya Mahamandaleshwar Lakshmi Narayan Tripathi from the Akhada.
A division bench of Justices A S Oka and V L Achliya said the state government will have to take prior permission from the court if it wanted to use the dam water for Kumbh Mela.
Raja Ram Tiwari has helped as many as ten lakh lost people find their family members in the confusion and clamour of such holy gatherings, says Sharat Pradhan
By any standards, the crowd was far bigger than what the festival has witnessed ever since it began on January 3.
A total of about seven crore Hindus are expected to converge in Allahabad.
The Uttar Pradesh government, citing a scientist, has asserted that Ganga water at the ongoing Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj is as pure as "alkaline water", debunking concerns raised by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) about water quality. The government claims that a scientist found no bacterial growth or decline in the water's pH level, despite millions of devotees bathing in the river. However, experts caution that the quality of the Ganga water is not static and can vary greatly depending on various factors.
Ahead of the Kumbh Mela from January-March 2019 at Prayag, the tanneries have been asked to shut down to stop discharge of effluents into the Ganga.
The BJP keeps taking dips till it appears good on the camera, he said.
Railways ramps up project to instal AI-based cameras that can recognise faces.
The recent stampede at New Delhi Railway station, which claimed the lives of at least 18 people, highlights a recurring issue in India: deadly stampedes. This tragedy is not an isolated incident, as numerous stampedes resulting in significant casualties have occurred over the years. This article explores some of the most devastating stampedes in India, including the deadly event at the Mahakumbh in Prayagraj just a few weeks ago, the 2024 tragedy at a 'satsang' in Hathras, and the 2013 stampede during Navratri festivities in Madhya Pradesh.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president M K Stalin said on Wednesday that the DMK will not oppose Hindi if it is not "imposed" on Tamil Nadu, stating that forcing the language on Tamils amounts to playing with their self-respect. Stalin's remarks come amidst an intense language row in the state, with the DMK alleging that the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre was trying to impose Hindi through the three-language formula in the National Education Policy (NEP), a charge denied by the union government.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, amid reports of growing discord with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, has issued a warning, stating, "Don't take me lightly." Shinde's remarks come amidst a series of events suggesting tensions between the two leaders, including the appointment of guardian ministers for Raigad and Nashik, the establishment of separate project monitoring cells, and Shinde's absence from several meetings convened by Fadnavis. The recent downgrading of police security for 20 Shiv Sena MLAs further fuels speculation of a growing rift. While both leaders have denied any discord, the events suggest a power struggle within the ruling alliance.
'I have no connection with the D (drug) world.'
Every 12 years comes a mystical, mind-boggling phenomenon. It is the Maha Kumbh Mela. Harvard experts map the exotic and the mundane at the spectacle. Arthur J Pais reports
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