KUMUD JENAMANI
Jamshedpur, Nov 20: A 22-year-old youth drowned while taking a bath before performing Chhath Puja at Kuluptanga Ghat in the Kharkai river under the Adityapur Thana area on Sunday.
Identified as Kundan Shukla, the youth was a resident of road No 11 in Adityapur Colony and was the only son among three daughters of his parents.
As a result of the tragedy, a pall of gloom descended among the people of the densely-populated Adityapur Colony which was merged into Chhath Puja with full devotion. Several social outfits which had planned to organize bhajan programs in the localities for the night cancelled them all.
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On the other hand, concerned with the safety and security of the Chhath devotees following the drowning death of the youth, the local administration prohibited the devotees from performing Chhath Puja at the adjoining Baba Kuti Chhath Ghat as it had been declared a danger zone.
Consequently, over one thousand devotees who were supposed to perform the Puja at the Baba Kuti Ghat had to move to another crowded ghat close to Road No 34 in Adityapur.
It may be mentioned here that the Baba Kuti Ghat was dangerous from the beginning but the people would do the Chhath Puja besides other things of life regularly. To make it a safe Ghat, the Adityapur Municipal Corporation had spent Rs 65 lakhs three years ago, but the concert platform and the stairs collapsed soon after it was constructed, thus turning the ghat even more dangerous.
Moreover, for the past two years, the local administration would just put a ‘dangerous’ tag on the Baba Kuti ghat before the Chhath Puja and had taken no step to get the ghat mended. But after the youth was drowned at Kuluptanga ghat, the administration prevented anyone from going over to the Baba Kuti ghat causing strong resentment among the Chhath devotees.
Significantly, the Seraikela SDO, Parul Singh who had visited the Baba Kuti ghat has assured the resentful residents of conducting a probe into the reasons behind the collapsing of newly-constructed Baba Kuti ghat shortly.
