On the occasion of Ganga Dussehra on Sunday, millions of devotees took a holy dip in river Ganga and other rivers and ponds in Uttar Pradesh.

There was a huge crowd at the Ganga ghats of Prayagraj, Kanpur, Vindyachal, Varanasi and Garh Mukteshwar along with Saryu Ghat in Ayodhya and in other places.

In view of the bathing on Ganga Dussehra on Sunday, UP Director General of Police Prashant Kumar has given instructions to make strict arrangements for the safety of people on the banks of river ghats and other water bodies.

He has issued guidelines in this regard to all the police commissioners, IGs, DIGs and district SPs, in which they have been asked to make all the arrangements to ensure the safe completion of the Ganga Dussehra bathing festival.

DGP Kumar said that police officers should visit the places where there is a possibility of a large crowd of bathers and make other arrangements including security. He has also given instructions to ensure adequate lighting on river ghats, barricading from security point of view and deployment of divers and water police.

Officers have been asked to get checking done in advance at bathing ghats and lakes and deploy male and female police personnel in plain clothes.

He has also given instructions not to allow any non-traditional event in view of the controversies that have taken place in the past years. The DGP has directed the officers to keep a close watch on all social media platforms and take action against those spreading misleading information and issue immediate refutation of the news. He said that UP-112 vehicles (emergency services) should be mandatorily deployed at crowded places.

A report from Varanasi said devotees took a dip in the ghats of the holy Ganga in Kashi on Ganga Dussehra on Sunday.

During this period, devotees from nearby districts gathered on the banks of Ganga to take bath and make donations. From early morning, ‘Har Har Gange’ (Hail Mother Goddess Ganga) started resonating on the ghats amid the sound of gongs in the temples.

On Ganga Dussehra, Dashashwamedh Ghat, Assi Ghat, Tulsighat, Rajendra Prasad Ghat and other ghats have been decorated with colourful flowers. Devotees who reached Kashi from far and wide, took a dip of faith during this period. After this, they visited and worshipped in other temples including Kashi Vishwanath Dham, Sankat Mochan, Durgakund.

It is believed that by taking a bath in Ganga on Ganga Dussehra and making donations, one gets freedom from sins and gets salvation.