A Nobel idea?

By demanding the Nobel Peace Prize, the world's most prestigious award, for the Kumbh 2010, chief minister Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has started an interesting debate. In fact even before the main Shahi Snan on April 14, Dr. Nishank said that the Kumbh, the biggest confluence of the humans at one place on the Earth, deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. Later on, he reiterated his stand many times. Dr. Nishank said that a well-known management expert from the USA, Dr. Hira Mani, who came to study the management of the Kumbh, was so impressed by the arrangements of the mega fair that he suggested that the Kumbh should be nominated for the coveted prize. "Nearly six crores devotees from 140 countries congregated at fair. To host so many devotees deserves the world's top award," asserted Dr. Nishank.

Though chief minister's stand has generated sharp criticism within the state. The leader of the opposition in the state assembly, Dr. Harak Singh Rawat says, "The chief minister has made a myopic statement. He should know that the Nobel prize is given every year to persons for outstanding work in some prescribed categories and cannot be given for crowd management. "Even the former chief minister of the state, Lt. General (retired) B.C. Khanduri has voiced his disagreement with Dr. Nishank on this issue.

The president of the Teerth Maryada Raksha Samiti, Sanjay Chopra says, "Self glorification and demand for Nobel Prize for the Kumbh by the chief minister are only a ploy to cover up the mismanagement and the corruption during the mela and the large number of casualties during the mega event." Striking a balance, the president of the Ganga Sabha, Ram Kumar Mishra says that the Kumbh may not qualify for the Nobel prize but the fair of such a vast magnitude definitely deserves a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Fair of many firsts

2010 Kumbh has been unique in many ways

The first Mahakumbh of the century at Haridwar and the first to be held after the creation of Uttarakhand, concluded with its eleventh and last snan on the auspicious occasion of the Purnima of the Adhimas (additional month) of the Baisakh of the Hindu calendar on April 28.

The devotees, including the sant community, bid adieu to the holy city, hoping to meet here again on the bank of the Ganga, after eleven years in 2021. "Due to the required conjunction of planets and stars for the holding of the Kumbh, the next Kumbh at Haridwar will be held after 11 years, instead of twelve years, a phenomenon which will occur after thousands of years," says Vipin Parashar, an eminent astrologer of the city. The last snan of the Kumbh started at wee hours at all the ghats, including Brahm Kund at Har-ki-Pauri, with cries of 'Har-Har-Mahadev' and 'Jai Ganga Maiya'. Most of the devotees came from Western U.P., Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Jammu, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujrat. Four special trains were run by the railway department and 200 special buses were also pressed into service to ferry the devotees from different states. Since the administration did not want to take any chance regarding the safety and security of the pilgrims, highly elaborate security arrangements were made and strict traffic plan was in place in the entire mela area. The official sources say that more than 15 lakh devotees took holy dip in the last snan. The Kumbh 2010 will be remembered for many firsts to its credit. For the first time in the history of the world such a huge gathering was witnessed at one place. The Kumbh mela officer, Anand Vardhan says that millions of devotees, from the country and abroad, driven by faith, congregated in the mela area during the four month mela period. Secondly, no cultural event had so far attracted such a global attention.

Huge number of devotees from more than 100 countries, including Pakistan, Nepal, the U.S.A., the U.K., Russia, Japan, Italy, Germany and Australia, flocked to the bank of the Ganga to have vivid glimpses of the mysticism and rituals of the wide spectrum of the Indian culture. Again, the akharas, which occupy the centerstage at the Kumbh, also made history this time. So far, at the Kumbh at Haridwar and the three other places where the Kumbh is held, there used to be three Shahi Snans, one Shahi Snan of the seven Sanyasi Akharas and the two other Shahi Snans in which all the 13 akharas, including the 7 akharas of the Sanyasis, 3 akharas of the Bairagis, the 2 akharas of the Udasins and one akhara of the Nirmals, used to take part. This time, in a welcome gesture of unity and harmony not only did all the 13 akharas participate in all the three Shahi Snans, but also declared the snan of the Bairagis, Udasins and the Nirmals, which was held on March 30 as a Shahi Snan, thus raising the number of the Shahi Snans from three to four. Also for the first time, the representatives of the Akhara Parishad, the apex body of all the akharas, took snan with masses on the last snan on April 28. The unity and comradeship, displayed by the akharas this time, ensured that there were no mutual bickering and clashes among the sadhus and the mahants, which had been a common feature in the previous Kumbhs not only in Haridwar but at other venues of the Kumbh too. Moreover, in the Kumbh at Haridwar it was for the first time that the administration provided camps and tents for all the mahamandleshwars, mandleshwars and mahants on the bank of the Ganga at Daksh Dweep, Gauri Shankar Dweep, Bairagi Camp, Neel Dhara Bank etc., outside the main city. The shifting of the main Kumbh area outside the city, on the pattern of the Kumbh at Prayag, eased pressure of the heavy rush of pilgrims from the main city. A welcome feature of this Mahakumbh was that both the central and the state governments acted in perfect sync, to ensure safety and security and smooth holding of this unique event. The central government provided heavy para military forces, besides generously providing financial assistance of about Rs.560 crore, the highest ever provided for the holding of any fair in the country. The Kumbh mela D.I.G., Alok Sharma says that 20,000 security personnel, including civil and the P.A.C. jawans of Uttarakhand and many other states and 60 companies of the para military forces provided by the centre were deployed throughout the mela area.

If the Mahakumbh 2010 made history on many fronts, history repeated itself in one respect. Inspite of the best efforts of the administration and highly elaborate security arrangements and massive preparations for crowd management, casualties due to untoward incident could not be avoided. The mega fair, which otherwise went very well, free from terror and violence, was disgraced by an unfortunate accident, resulting in a stampede and the caving in of the railings of a bridge, claiming at least seven precious lives.

Fair & Ugly:

104 days of Kumbh have left a trail of garbage and stink, reports P.S. Chauhan:

Though on April 28, the Maha Kumbh has come to an end but the mega event has left tonnes of stinking filth and garbage behind it, which will take weeks to get disposed. And now it is a tough task to dispose this trash and to restore city's hale. Indeed, sanitation mess needs to be cleared at the earliest. The condition was not that bad when Kumbh started but as the event came to an end it has worsened. Though devotees have been flocking ever since Kumbh started in January but these hordes of pilgrims were manageable and it wasn't a Herculean task to maintain healthy hygiene conditions and concerned authorities did not face any challenge. But the last two months of the Kumbh saw a surge in the number of devotees and sanitation conditions started to worsen. Stats say that nearly eight crore devotees congregated in the city during the mega fair. Beside huge discharge of human excreta, a large quantity of polythene and plastic items brought by the pilgrims and an equally large amount of organic and inorganic waste of crockery and other items that were used in thousands of tents, ashrams and akharas for bhandaras and mass feasting, has brought sanitation on the brink of collapse. The disposal of the bio-medical waste of the temporary mela hospitals and the inorganic waste of polythene and plastics, which has got mixed with the organic waste, is posing a big threat as well. The health officer of the city, Dr. Anil Tyagi admits that during the snans nearly 5-6 thousand tonnes of garbage has piled up in Kumbh area.

Heaps of filth and garbage have become a common sight in Shankaracharya Nagar, Mahamandleshwar Nagar and Gaur Shankar Dweep. The worst hit are Bairagi camp and Daksh Dweep, where sanitation conditions have virtually collapsed. Here roads have turned into pools of mud and dirty water, providing a fertile breeding ground for mosquitoes and flies. The temporary toilets made in the Kumbh area have got choked and the sewer pits are overflowing.

The entire Kumbh mela area is stinking and it is difficult to pass through without covering one's face. Forget mela area even at Brahmpuri, Saptsarover, Bhopatwala, Laljiwala, Balawala, Satighat, Rajghat, Kadachh Mohalla the condition is no different. The state urban development minister and the minister in-charge of the Kumbh, Madan Kaushik visited several areas in the city and instructed the health officials to expedite their work. If the filth is not cleaned soon then danger of breaking out of an epidemic looms large. Hundreds of patients of diarrhea are being admitted every day in the hospitals. Brijendra Harsh, who is associated with the Prakhar Mission Hospital Services, a voluntary organisation, says that 90 per cent of these patients are suffering from cholera or diarrhea. Dr. Anil Tyagi says that the city will soon be rid of filth. The Kumbh mela health officer, Dr. S.P. Agarwal says that more than 9,000 sanitary workers with 36 trolleys are working in three shifts to clear the heaps of filth and garbage which is being dumped in the trenching grounds at Kangri and near the Jatwara bridge at Jwalapur. The Kumbh mela officer, Anand Vardhan himself inspected the Mahamandleshwar Nagar and the adjoining areas and issued strict instrucitons to the officials of the health department to clear the entire mela area of garbage at the earliest.