Varanasi: Thousands of people from across the globe performed rituals of ‘pind-daan’ for the salvation and peace of the souls of ancestors at ghats along Ganga and other sites on the concluding day of Pitripaksha, also known as Mahalaya Amavasya, on Saturday. Meanwhile, preparations for Sharadiya Navratri started in the temples of Goddess Durga especially in Vindhyachal of Mirzapur district.Apart from the ghats along Ganga, sites like Pishach Mochan, Pitrikund and Matrikund remained heavily crowded with people congregating to perform the ‘pind-daan’ and ‘shraaddh’ rituals under the supervision of priests on the concluding day of the fortnight of obituary rituals.Senior police officials could be found busy working hard to keep crowds and traffic regulated.A massive effort by Varanasi Municipal Corporation was evident on the routes leading to prominent Durga temples especially Shailputri temple, where devotees throng in large numbers on the inaugural day of Navratri.In Mirzapur, district magistrate Pavan Kumar Gangwar and SP Aparna Rajat Kaushik took stock of arrangements for crowd management at Vindhyachal, Ganga bank, Kalikhoh and Ashtabhuja. ADG Varanasi zone Naveen Arora also reached Mirzapur to review arrangements. The officials also reviewed arrangements for the nine-day Vindhya Mahotsava.While officials were busy in these exercises, pilgrims from far and nearby districts started reaching Vindhyachal to join the queues to get the first glimpse of the deity on the morning of Navratri Day 1.Many Durga Puja organisers, who install the idols on the first day of Navratri, were busy collecting the idols of their puja pandals from the workshop of idol makers.
