Crowd mgmt drill tomorrow to ensure safe Sankranti snan

Prayagraj: Ahead of the Makar Sankranti snan on January 14 and 15 on the banks of Ganga at the ongoing Magh Mela, the mela police on Tuesday decided to conduct a contingency drill on crowd management on Thursday.
Mela police expects crowd to swell manifold on Makar Sankranti compared to Paush Purnima. Around 5.10 lakh devotees had taken dip on Paush Purnima snan -- the first day of Magh Mela.
The mela police are leaving no stone unturned to ensure foolproof security arrangements for devotees for Makar Sankranti snan.
SSP (Magh Mela) Rajiv Narayan Mishra told TOI: “Elaborate security arrangements would be in place for Makar Sankranti snan to be held on January 14 and 15. Adequate police forces have been called in from different parts of the state and police teams would be deployed at all static locations.”
Mishra said a network of 200 CCTV sets will help cops to maintain a strict vigil in and around mela campus.
Besides, cops have been assigned duties on 18 watch towers.
“The space of ghat has been expanded in view of Makar Sankranti snan and more ghats are ready for pilgrims. Apart from deep barricading, PAC (flood relief) and jal police would be deployed at all ghats and cops would be stopping devotees to enter deep waters. Besides, two teams of NDRF have also been deployed on mela campus,” he said.
Mela police said a large posse of 5000 policemen will be deployed on mela duties on two days of Makar Sankranti celebrations.
Briefing of GRP personnel has also been carried out by senior officials.