Lakhs of devotees offer puja to the setting sun in Chhath in Bihar

Patna, Nov 16 (UNI) Millions of people from all sections of the society offered their obeisance to the setting Sun and took a holy dip in the Ganges and several other rivers across Bihar as the three day long 'Chhath' festival reached its culmination today.

Many devotees who could not travel to the rivers largely because of their inaccesibility and increasing pollution, have however,set up temporary water tanks in their localities and even on rooftops to offer their obeisance to the Sun god from there bypassing the age old custom.

The Bihar government in order to enable more people to reach the river banks and make their offerings there,has repaired and cleaned as many as 40 ghats of the Ganges in and around the capital city here besides making elaborate security and other arrangements to ensure safety of lage number of devotees, mostly women.

As the Sun was about to set this evening thousands of devotees carrying their offerings and dressed in colourful attire thronged the ghats and pools here to offer their obeisance to the God-the setting sun.

The three-day festival, the largest and considered to be the most religious in the state, would be concluded tomorrow with paying of similar obeisance to the rising Sun by the devotees.

The day has been declared a government holiday and the entire city wore a deserted look as everything was closed and the number of traffic on roads was bare minimum.There was also no report of any untoward incident or violence from any part of the state.

Governor R S Gavai and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar have also greeted the people on the occasion.

UNI