Hindu pilgrims gather to bathe at the ritual bathing site at Sangam, during the Kumbh Mela festival in Allahabad, India. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Hindu pilgrims gather to bathe at the ritual bathing site at Sangam, during the Kumbh Mela festival in Allahabad, India. (Mario Tama/Getty Images) 
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Ganga Gets Its 300-Strong ‘Army’ Ahead Of The Kumbh: Volunteer Force Of Ex-Servicemen To Manage Crowd

BySwarajya Staff

A volunteer force of ex-servicemen named Ganga Task Force will be involved in crowd management during Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, The Hindu has reported. Ministry of Defence has trained the volunteer force in crowd management.

The Jawans have also been trained by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to measure the health of the river. The force will also spread awareness among devotees and industry on keeping the river clean.

Director-General of the National Mission for Clean Ganga, Rajiv Ranjan Mishra told The Hindu that the task force had a strength of 300 and there were plans to expand it to a strength of 500. The constitution of the force has been cleared by the government, but their role has not been clearly defined. The force’s role will be clearly defined in the ‘Ganga Act’ which is still not finalised by parliament.

‘Namami Gange’ mission is running under NMCG. The body has been given an Rs 20,000-crore, centrally-funded, non-lapsable corpus.