Ujjain : Thousands of lamps illuminated the river banks of Kshipra here during the ‘Deepdaan’, marked here on the occasion of Kartik Purnima on Wednesday.
Villagers and resident had reached the Kshipra banks a night earlier and halted for the night and took the holy dip early in the morning. Many residents who converged here on this religious occasion in large numbers lit the flour-based lamps mostly, as they dissolve in water. For the onlookers and tourists, in particular, the illumination of so many lamps and the evening worship of holy River Kshipra was a magnificent sight. Hundreds of women devotees converged on the banks of River Kshipra on this occasion and mark the auspicious day by lighting earthen lamps and floating them in the holy river. Village women were seen busy shopping after completing the bath.
With Simhastha preparations and works going on, massive traffic jams were seen in the city. Such was the scenario that national highways and interior roads connecting Ram Ghat were full of vehicles and people and traffic was moving at a snail’s pace. The problem got aggravated with the parking lots getting filled up within hours. Vehicles had to be either diverted or stopped at certain points to avoid jams. People commuting through public transport suffered the most. The bus station was full of passengers in the absence of adequate numbers of buses to ferry pilgrims.
Trains, too, came jam-packed and there was quite a chaos at railway station. People were found running here and there for catching buses to their respective destinations. Many opted to board buses from other places outside the city.
