Report Wire

Tag: Chhat

  • Garhwa civic body begins cleaning of Chhat ghats

    With just a week left for Chhat, the district administration, civic body and social organisations have started a drive to clean the ghats.
    The ghats at the banks of Danro and Saraswatiya rivers, besides those at the lakes and ponds are being refurbished for the convenience of devotees. The administration is also making provisions to provide devotees with Puja items and milk for ‘arghya’.
    Zila parishad chairperson Pinky Keshri said, “All the ghats are being thoroughly cleaned. There are altogether 19 Chhat ghats in the civic area. The sanitation drive has been launched much ahead of the festival this time so that devotees do not face any trouble.”
    She added, “Neighbourhoods are also being cleaned up by the civic body in association with Chhat committee members. Most of the streets leading to the rivers and ponds will be decorated with colourful lights.”
    Besides locals, revellers from neighbouring Bihar and Uttar Pradesh also visit the ghats here during the festivities, Keshri said.

  • Ahead of Chhat Puja, Jharkhand govt allows inter-state bus services to resume

     After allowing private buses to operate only intra-state at 50% capacity for the past few months, the state government on Thursday night allowed bus owners to ply their vehicles inter-state at full capacity. The decision comes just days ahead of Chhat Puja when Biharis living in Jharkhand make a beeline for the neighbouring state and book trains and buses months in advance. Currently, only one Bihar-bound passenger train (Tatanagar-Chhapra Express) operates from Jamshedpur, so resumption of inter-state bus services will prove to be a boon for them.
    “Ever since bus services resumed from September, the commuters, in anticipation that inter-state services will resume soon, would ask us about advance bookings, particularly for Bihar,” Jamshedpur Bus Operators’ Association (JBOA) functionary Upendra Kumar Sharma said on Friday.

    “In the pre-Covid days, we would ferry around 22,000 passengers to three states — Odisha, Bengal and Bihar – during the festive season and 70% of them travelled to the neighbouring state,” he added.
    Steel City resident D K Jha (53), who works at a private firm, was elated upon hearing that now he can travel to Bihar for Chhat and he plans to book his ticket to Motihari soon. He, however, is wary of operators following the safety norms now that buses will ply at full capacity. “Resumption of inter-state bus services ahead of Chhat Puja is indeed a good news but I need to see how sincerely the operators will comply with the Covid norms while plying their vehicles at full capacity,” he said.