West Bengal Government to organise ‘Ganga Aarti’ at Kolkata ghat

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday announced that her government will organise ‘Ganga Aarti’ at Kolkata’s Baje Kadamtala Ghat.

While the announcement comes a day after a political row erupted over the Kolkata Police denying permission to BJP leaders holding a Ganga Aarti, Ms. Banerjee had a few weeks ago expressed her interest on holding a Ganga Aarti along the lines of the ceremony held in Varanasi.

On Tuesday, chaos ensued where BJP State president Sukanta Majumdar tried to perform Ganga Aarti despite the Kolkata Police denying permission for the event on account of the influx of pilgrims to the Ganga Sagar Mela.

On Wednesday, Ms. Banerjee, while addressing a gathering at Kolkata’s Outram Ghat, where a transit camp has been set up for pilgrims to the Ganga Sagar Mela, said that she, along with the Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Firhad Hakim, had scouted various ghats of the city for holding the Ganga Aarti.  Emphasising that adequate safety measures need to be taken, the Chief Minister said that work on arrangements for the Ganga Aarti will start from Friday (January 12). She added that the arrangements will be made for the ‘Aarti’ in the evening, and in the morning, the structures will be removed. “At Varanasi, there are stairs at the ghats. Here, we don’t have any, so we will use wooden structures,” Ms. Banerjee said. She also added that in times to come, ‘Ganga Aarti’ can be held also in places like the Dakhineshwar temple and Belur Math.

During the event, Ms. Banerjee spoke about the arrangements at the Ganga Sagar Mela and said that, unlike the Kumbh Mela, Sagar Island, where the annual pilgrimage takes place, is neither connected with roads nor railways. “We have made the Ganga Sagar festival tax free,” she said. The Chief Minister said that seven to eight Ministers will be deployed at the Ganga Sagar Mela this season, and urged the pilgrims not to heed to any rumours that may create panic. Lakhs of people descend on the Sagar island in the Sundarbans on the occasion of Makar Sankranti to take a holy dip at the place where river Ganga meets the sea.  

Ms. Banerjee recalled several initiatives by her government for the restoration of temples and said, “We believe in the Hindu religion whose path was laid by Swami Vivekananda and Shri Ramakrishna.”