Ujjain: Thousands of devotees from across the country visited Nagchandreshwar temple on Monday on the occasion of Nagpanchami. The doors of temple are opened only once in a year for 24 hours. Long queues of devotees were seen outside Mahakaleshwar Temple. Devotees began to throng the temple from Sunday night. According to administration over 1.5 lakh pilgrims took the view of lord Nagchandreshwar till Monday evening and their arrival was continuing till the night. The huge crowd of pilgrims collapsed along with all the preparations made by the administration. The queue of the common devotees started from Triveni Museum from where through zigzag routes the devotees were reaching to Nagchandreshwar temple.
Doors of temple opened at Sunday midnight
The doors of Nagchadreshwar temple opened on Sunday at 12 midnight on Sunday at an auspicious muhurat. On this occasion mahant Panchayati Mahanirvani Akhada Prakashpuri Maharaj performed worship with religious rituals. IG Rakesh Gupta, collector Shashank Mishra, MLA Mahesh Parmar, Mohan Yadav and other prominent persons were also present there.
ADMIN FAILS UTTERLY: DCC
Meanwhile, the District Congress Committee (DCC) has taken the civil and police administration over mismanagements on account of Nagpanchami festival and third traditional procession of Lord Mahakal during Shrawan month. DCC spokesman Vivek Gupta stated that the administration has failed utterly in ensuring proper arrangements. He alleged that three ministers of State government were there in the city in view of darshan, but they were not provided protocol. He also said that the devotees had to face acute inconveniences in wake of lack of water and medical arrangements and even the media was not allowed to cover the event. “We informed about the mismanagements to collector and SP several times, but to no avail. We will apprise about the same to CM and will ask him to direct the responsible officials that such mismanagements do no reoccur,” Gupta added. On the other hand, senior Congress leader Dr Batuk Shankar Joshi got furious when he visited the Facilitation Centre (behind Mahakaleshwar Temple) in the evening and saw that despite of no rush the policemen on duty were not allowing the devotees to enter the temple for darshan. He also telephoned a senior police officer and asked to ensure better arrangements.
Police lose cool due to heavy rush
According to devotees, cops deployed to manage crowd lost their cool some times. According to a devotee who was in queue from Sunday night to Monday 9 am put the complaint before ASP Neeraj Pande of misbehavior of cops and told that some police personnel used abusive language for devotees in a fit of fury while controlling the crowd. The condition of a pilgrim was suddenly worsened who was standing in the queue for 4-5 hours. Vijay Sonkar resident of Pratapgarh alleged, he felt uneasy while standing in the queue but he did not receive any medical assistance at the temple premises, and his family members somehow rushed him at Civil Hospital.
Collector worships on behalf of government
The district administration claimed that amid sufficient arrangements, lakhs of devotees viewed lord Nagchadreshwar. According to traditions, collector Shashank Mishra performed worship and religious rituals on behalf of the state government. On this occasion commissioner Ajeet Kumar, IG Rakesh Gupta and temple administrator Awadesh Sharma were also present.
PR minister attends Bhasmaarti
Public relations minister PC Sharma reached the temple on Monday morning, paid obeisance to Lord Mahakal and attended ‘bhasmaarti’. The minister also performed abhishek in the temple. He also paid obeisance at the presiding deity at Nagchandreshwar Temple.
