Over the last five days, a total of 2,167 people were found positive for coronavirus in Haridwar -- the place where the month-long Kumbh is going on.
'Should the Kumbh Mela even be held while an infectious pandemic lays waste to India?'
Authorities continue to pass the buck and even blame pilgrims in what clearly appears to be a case of inept handling of the situation by the police and railway officials, reports Sharat Pradhan
Using the same methodology as the EAC-PM study, the fastest-growing religious population is, in fact, the Buddhists. The Buddhist population increased by over 1,600 per cent between 1950 and 2015.
Mela Inspector General Sanjay Gunjyal also said the religious event formally began on April 1 by which time the second wave of Covid was already raging in states like Maharashtra and Haryana.
Braving the winter chill, thousands of devotees on Thursday took a holy dip in the Ganga in Haridwar heralding the start of the three-month-long Maha Kumbh, considered the largest religious congregation that takes place once in 12 years.
The push to develop Ayodhya as a tourism centre, accompanied by large-scale infrastructure projects, comes on the back of years of limited income growth and tourist inflows.
Despite director Homi Adajania's ease around quirky ensembles and macabre touches, Murder Mubarak fails to draw the viewer into its shallow world of the vain and wealthy, feels Sukanya Verma.
Most of the devotees have already left and the akhadas have been winding up their camps one after another.
Besides the national capital, polling for the sixth round of the marathon seven-phase elections will be held Saturday in 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, all 10 seats of Haryana, eight seats each in Bihar and West Bengal, six seats in Odisha, four seats in Jharkhand and one seat in Jammu and Kashmir.
More than 3crore (30million) devotees are expected to attend the month-long event, which transforms this temple city into a mini-India, and about 25lakh are likely to take a dip in Kshipra River as part of the 'shahi snan' on the opening day Monday.
The Delhi high court on Wednesday sought the stand of the Centre and city government on a public interest litigation seeking a direction to the authorities to use the "proper meaning" of the term "religion' and not use it as a synonym of "dharma" in official documents.
From melodrama to mockery (remember Amar and Prem's phony separated-at-Kumbh Mela reunion in a gag of Andaz Apna Apna?), there are numerous instances of its presence.
Chief Minister-designate Mohan Yadav, an OBC leader and three-time Bharatiya Janata Party MLA, started his political career when he was a student and rose to become higher education minister of Madhya Pradesh where he announced to make Hindu epic Ramcharitmanas as an optional subject in colleges in 2021.
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.
The consensus to handover the ownership rights of Kumbh area comprising Har-Ki-Pauri and VIP Ghat in Haridwar toUttarakhand was arrived during a meeting of top officials of the two states in the presence of Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta in New Delhi.
Modi said that for nearly one and a half years he has been putting in place details of new schemes to give new pace to the country's development and curb poverty.
BJP sources suggest that the upcoming elections will likely revolve around the renewed enthusiasm for the temple unless another theme with religious and nationalist undertones emerges.
he one-and-a-half-month-long Kumbh Mela ended on Monday with devotees from different walks of life and parts of the country taking a holy dip on Mahashivratri.
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.
Reuters's Indian Photojournalists Adnan Abidi, Amit Dave, Danish Siddiqui and Sanna Irshad Mattoo were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography at Columbia University in Manhattan, October 20, 2022.
The ancient Ganga-Godavari-temple on the bank of river Godavari was later closed till next Kumbh mela to be held in 2027-28.
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
Smriti Irani also tweeted a picture of her holy dip, with the caption "Har Har Gange".
As the temple is inaugurated, unfortunately for Advani but unsurprisingly for the rest of us, the architect of the party's rise will not lead the ceremony and claim credit for his achievement, notes Aakar Patel.
This statue, which is 28-foot tall including the pedestal, was made using the ancient lost-wax technique of metal casting that was used for making the famed Chola bronzes, sources said.
Yadav had recently visited Haridwar where the Kumbh Mela is underway and met various religious leaders, including Akhara Parishad chairman Mahant Narendra Giri who had tested positive for COVID-19 earlier.
The stampede on the banks of Godavari River in Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh added to India's notoriety for deaths due to such accidents, when sudden, uncontrollable crowds surge out of control.
He also washed the feet of sanitation workers at the 'Swachh Kumbh, Swachh Aabhaar' programme in Prayagraj.
Namrata Thakker takes a peek into Alia's AMAZING life through her Instagram feed.
If everyone had decent meaningful jobs, the rally maidans would be largely empty and, save for the Akhara babas and curious foreigners and the devout senior citizens, not very many would spare time for the Kumbh Mela, says Mahesh Vyas.
The Kumbh Mela police has registered a case against a foreign photographer and a helicopter company for taking photographs from a chopper which flew dangerously close to people at the Mela on Sunday, police said on Tuesday.
She wanted to take a dip in the Shipra river in Ujjain and had secured an order from a court in Dewas district.
The inclusion of those who were reportedly responsible for the stampede that killed 36 people at Allahabad station during the Kumbh Mela, in Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's entourage to Harvard has raised eyebrows. Sharat Pradhan reports
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday rejected the resignation of Cabinet Minister Mohammad Azam Khan as the chief of Kumbh Mela Organising Committee.
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
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi on Sunday said that a Comptroller Auditor General inquiry should be conducted into expenditure made during Maha Kumbh Mela at Allahabad.
Yet another fire broke out at the Kumbh Mela area in Allahabad on Saturday afternoon, injuring two sadhus, an official said.
With 100 million pilgrims expected to come in from all over the country for this bathing festival on Friday, the Uttar Pradesh government faces an uphill task to get the things moving smoothly after the tragedy during 'Mauni Amavasya' holy dip.
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