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After a brief halt due to large crowds, saints began their procession as they headed to the Triveni Sangam for the second Amrit Snan of MahaKumbh 2025 on the occasion of Mauni Amavasya on Wednesday.
Saints and Akharas halted the second Amrit Snan after a stampede-like situation as a massive crowd of devotees gathered at the Sangam Ghats in the early morning of Wednesday. Heavy security was deployed at the Triveni Sangam as police paved the way for Akharas and saints for their Amrit Snan on the occasion of Mauni Amavasya. Mahakumbh DIG Vaibhav Krishna said that the crowd is under control and all preparations for the Akharas and saints are in place. "... We expect more than 10 crore people today... All our officials and personnel have been deployed for crowd regulation since yesterday evening. People are bathing at all the ghats here peacefully... In the morning, there was pressure and a huge crowd. Many Akharas told us to regulate the crowd and that they would come out for the snan later," DIG Mahakumbh, Vaibhav Krishna, said. "Now that the crowd is under control, our preparations for the Akharas and saints are in place. The Akhara Marg and Akhara Ghat are ready. The whole area is sanitised and we have conveyed this to the Akharas and they will soon start coming here for snan... We do not have official numbers of stampede victims since we have been involved in crowd control here. The injured are being treated," he added. President of Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad, Mahant Ravindra Puri, said that the saints will go to ghats in small numbers as the crowd is huge. "Today we will bathe our deities. Since the crowd is huge here, we will go to the ghat in small numbers. We are trying our saints and seers to avoid it today unless it is extremely important. We need to keep in mind the situation of ghats and the crowd. The next Amrit Snan on Vasant Panchami will definitely be a grand one," Mahant Ravindra Puri said. "If we can bathe our deities, we will consider we have bathed ourselves. We will not carry out huge processions this time," he added. Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday appealed to devotees at the ongoing Mahakumbh in Uttar Pradesh''s Prayagraj to take a holy dip at the ghats nearest to them and advised to not insist on taking a dip at the Sangam Ghat due to large crowds. He said that around 8 to 10 crore devotees are present in Prayagraj today and there is continuous pressure due to the movement of devotees towards the Sangam Nose. He said that a few devotees have suffered serious injuries when they tried to cross barricading on Akhara Marg. "Around 8-10 crore devotees are present in Prayagraj today. There is continuous pressure due to the movement of devotees towards the Sangam Nose. A few devotees have suffered serious injuries when they tried to cross barricading on Akhara Marg. The injured have been shifted to hospitals for medical treatment," CM Yogi Adityanath said. "The PM has taken stock of the situation four times till now. Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Governor Anandiben Patel are also continuously taking reports of the situation," the CM noted. Meanwhile, 36.1 million devotees have taken a bath in Triveni till 10 am on Wednesday, according to the Uttar Pradesh government. (ANI)
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