All efforts to ensure Basant Panchami snan incident-free

Prayagraj: Following directions of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, chief secretary Manoj Kumar Singh and DGP Prashant Kumar inspected the Maha Kumbh stampede site here on Thursday and issued necessary directives to enhance arrangements.
Acknowledging the unfortunate incident, they urged administration to stay motivated and adopt a "Build it better" approach, ensuring that the upcoming Amrit Snan on Basant Panchami had zero-error arrangements. DGP UP, Prashant Kumar, expressed deep sorrow over the incident and said, "The Chief Minister is deeply affected and has monitored the situation continuously for 12 hours without break and was ensuring no effort was spared in making the arrangements seamless." He emphasised that maximum officers must be deployed in high-density areas, with SP-level officers stationed at border points to enhance coordination and crowd management.
Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar Singh said, "The accident cannot be undone and now, our priority is to ensure Amrit Snan on Basant Panchami is a memorable experience for devotees." He added, "Despite exhaustive planning, excessive crowd led to the unfortunate incident, but our morale should not sag."
Singh directed multi-level barricading to regulate flow of devotees and to enforce diversion plan strictly. He said the CM had deployed additional senior officers to enhance arrangements and to assist in planning and executing measures to ensure maximum convenience for pilgrims.
Highlighting importance of Swachchh Maha Kumbh, he instructed for Mela area to be free of litter with officials overseeing cleanliness efforts personally. Fresh liner bags must be placed in all dustbins, he said.
Mela Officer Vijay Kiran Anand highlighted that all ghats were utilised and diversion plan enforced from night before Amrit Snan in order to regulate crowd flow. The public address system was functioning efficiently, and real-time feedback from the ICCC (Integrated Command and Control Center) played a crucial role in managing the event, he said. He emphasised that strategic deployment will be carried out, and the zonal plan will be re-implemented to ensure devotees bathe at their nearest designated ghats, preventing unnecessary crowd build-up at specific locations.
The review meeting was attended by UPPCL chairman Ashish Goyal, principal secretary urban development Amrit Abhijat, ADG Bhanu Bhaskar, Commissioner Vijay Vishwas Pant, police commissioner Tarun Gaba, DIG Vaibhav Krishna, and SSP Rajesh Dwivedi.