Palamu administration draws plans for peaceful Muharram

Muharram Inteezamiya committee’s General Khalifa Zishan Khan has urged the faithful of his community to observe this occasion with understanding, peace and amity.

Muharram is starting on July 31 and will conclude on August 9. The district administration is drawing plans for a peaceful Muharram. It is observed on a very large scale in Palamu.

Palamu DC Anjaneyulu Dodde held a meeting on the issue of Muharram and other allied things.

Sources said some of the Tazias on this occasion is said to be gorgeous which means it will pull huge viewers.  Crowd management has to be very tactical as with Tazias precede the Nishans which are huge long poles wrapped with green colour flags normally denoting replica of battle for justice. These poles are leaned against any wall or structure when not carried by both hands. Here it is to be ensured that no such Nishan pole leans upon any other wall of people of other faith.

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Huge green flags appear at the Chhoumuhan here in Daltonganj heralding the advent of the Muharram. It was in the tenure of the then Palamu SP Mayur Patel that some unidentified miscreants had set afire a few green flags at Chhoumuhan. The incident was most aptly handled then.

“We will be having twin occasions Raksha Bandhan and Muharram,” said Zishan Khan.

Although Muharram concludes on August 9 and Raksha Bandhan is on August 11 and by this account, it is not going to show that any of the two occasions will cast a shadow on the other apparently but it is.

Days, say a week, before the Raksha Bandhan, Jhulan Mela is held on the bank of the river which although covers a short distance nevertheless the number of shops in tents and its popularity are too crowd pulling, falls in the same route which is for the Tazia Milaan procession.

The shops in the tents are pitched on both sides of the road of the river bank Koel further reducing the width albeit temporarily. Sources said such a route where there is a Mela can’t be fit from the law and order point for any religious procession as no one knows for the turn of event.

The Jhulan Mela has a very long tradition of many decades and is quite a very popular event with the rich and the poor alike. People keep waiting for the Jhulan Mela to be held all year round.

Likewise, there is the age-old tradition of the Tazias Milaan for which this route, where this time there will be Jhulan Mela, is used invariably.

“We understand the coincidence of the two occasions,” Muharram Inteezamiya committee General Khalifa said

There is an alternative resolution to it which calls for Tazias Milaan on the Shahpur Garhwa road bridge.

Zishan Khan too hinted of it saying he and other members of the Muharram Inteezamiya committee would be meeting the Sadar SDO Rajesh Kumar Sah in this connection.

However, this bridge is very busy as it connects Jharkhand’s Daltonganj to UP and Chhatisgarh both via the Garhwa district. Sources said any confluence or congregation here will surely throw the road traffic into chaos. If during the confluence, any ambulance arrives then it will script altogether a different story.

Dodde said there would be a series of peace committee meetings in the entire length and breadth of Palamu.

The DC said there would also be a district-level peace committee meeting. He has directed his officials to contain, restrict and curb any traffic of illegal vehicles with illegal consignment.

Sources in the police set up in Palamu said there are nearly a dozen flash points in this district that call for extra effort for law and order peace and harmony. And a good number of flashpoints are in the police stations of Sadar, Satbarwa, Chainpur, Bishrampur, Haidernagar etc.

Security and traffic management along with crowd management is going to be a pain in the neck of the administration.