Patna: The national general secretary of BJP OBC morcha and Bihar BJP spokesperson Dr. Nikhil Anand on Thursday demanded financial grants to the Chhath Puja Committees. He urged Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to organize Chhath Mahaparv and allocate funds to Chhath Puja committees in the state.
Anand said, “Chhath is one such great festival of Bihar which has become a popular festival in the country and all over the world. The festival celebrated on such a large scale, is organized only with public support without any government help. Except for some security arrangements at the ghats by the government and the police- administration, all the arrangements for traffic, furnishings, and cleanliness are made only with public cooperation.”
He further said, “The Bihar government should provide financial help to the Chhath Puja committees operating at the panchayat level through the sub-divisional and block officers.”
Chhath is a unique festival that has no formal ritual performed and no priest is required in this festival. It is performed with the highest sense of devotion with physical and mental purity. During the festival, there will a sea-change in the state and everybody focuses on devotion towards the Sun god with utmost sincerity, and purity.
Anand further added, “In Bihar, there is a government system in a municipal corporation, municipal council, Nagar panchayat, and three-tier Panchayati system. Keeping in view the future challenges of Chhath Mahaparv, the Bihar government should also take the responsibility of organizing this Mahaparv. It is very important that the government of Bihar should discharge the financial responsibility of organizing through Chhath Puja committees. While declaring the budget every year, the Bihar government can arrange a special budget for the Chhath Puja which can be distributed through the different Puja committees for organizing the Chhath festival.”
Strong resolve marks Chhath, the festival of offering prayers to the Sun god. After fasting for two days, the Chhat Vratis (devotees) offer the Arghya to the sun on the third day morning. On these three days, different rituals and ceremonies are observed keeping devotion in mind. Fasting without water starts after Kharna in the evening. The devotees break the fast after offering Arghya to the rising sun. A lot of restrictions have to be followed while observing the rituals related to this festival.
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The piousness of this festival could be understood from the fact that even Muslims take part in this festival by cleaning the ghats and making earthen stoves for the devotees. In Bihar, Chhath is a festival that automatically forces people to take a vow to maintain purity, discipline, and cleanliness for four consecutive days commencing from Nahay Khay.
A large number of devotees will congregate at Ganga ghats and chief minister Nitish Kumar has been inspecting the Chhath ghats for the past few days. As far as the financial grant is concerned, there is no provision to provide so. It is also a fact that the state government spent a lot of money on the arrangements at Chhath ghats which includes changing rooms, toilets, drinking water, restrooms, a public address system, and many others.
JDU spokesperson Abhishek Jha claimed that BJP always does politics in the name of religion and once again the saffron party is trying to hamper the sanctity of the festival by making such demands.
“The BJP always claims to be the people's friend but when the time comes they get engaged in unnecessary things. First, the Centre did not make arrangements for trains to bring Biharis to their state and after the intervention of our CM, they gave a few trains. If the BJP wants to provide financial help to the Chhath devotees they should better give us a special category status. Our government is doing a lot of work for the devotees and leaving no stone unturned to ensure that devotees do not face any problems during the festival. As far as a separate budget is concerned, there's no such provision in the Bihar government,” Jha asserted.
