Excelsior Correspondent
REASI, Apr 2: Arrangements to celebrate 3-day historic Dera Baba Baisakhi Festival commencing from April 12 at Holy Shrine of Dera Banda Bahadur, were discussed at a meeting of District Officers of various departments and prominent citizens under the chairmanship of Deputy Commissioner Reasi -Sushma Chauhan here today.
The meeting was attended by SSP Reasi-Sujit Kumar, ADC Reasi-Shiv Kumar Gupta, ACD Reasi-Joginder Singh Rai, CMO-Dr Parminder Singh, Dy Director Sheep Breeding Farm-Dr Tara Chand, BDO Reasi-Tina Mahajan, DIO-Parvinder Kour, ARTO-Rajesh Gupta, Tehsildar-Daljeet Singh, X-En PDD, PWD, PHE, EO Municipality Reasi, Manager NHPC Jugal Sharma, representatives from Dera Baba Banda Bahadur Committee and other sectoral officers.
Dera Baba Banda Bahadur Shrine situated nearly 20 kms from district headquarter Reasi; 28 km from Katra town attracts thousands of devotees during the Baisakhi festival every year. The 300-year-old Dera Baba Banda Bahadur has a historic Gurdwara, having the Samadhi of Banda Bahadur. Besides the ashes of Banda Bahadur, it has an arrow given to him by Guru Gobind Singh and other weapons, including a huge sword. The Mela is displaying all the belongings of the Baba.
DC issued instructions to Tourism Department to give wide publicity to the event so that pilgrims visiting Mata Vaishno Devi and Shiv Khori Shrine could be made aware about the Shrine. It was decided in the meeting that Executive Engineer PHE would ensure drinking water arrangements while Executive Officer Municipality would ensure proper cleansing of the site besides First Aid Camp by Health Department. Executive Engineer, PDD would ensure uninterrupted power supply during the Mela days. Likewise, Police Department would ensure adequate security arrangements at mela site.
Other issues related to transport facilities, supply of ration, deployment of fire tender, traffic management were also discussed in the meeting.
DC called upon the officers for putting in their dedicated and coordinated efforts in making foolproof arrangements pertaining to their respective departments so that mela culminates successfully.
Follow our WhatsApp channel