People across the country are starting the New Year in their own style. At some places people are having parties, while at other places some people started the new year with spiritual journeys. A large number of devotees reached Omkareshwar located in Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh on the first day of the year. A huge crowd of people was seen at the ghats of Mother Narmada. Long queues of devotees were seen to have darshan of Lord Omkareshwar and Mamleshwar Jyotirling. Despite the severe cold, a large number of devotees reached the temple to have darshan of Bhole Baba on New Year. But in the meantime, to avoid any kind of trouble to the common devotees, VIP darshan has been banned in the temple.
Till now, the district administration has been providing darshan of God to the VIP persons in the temple as per the protocol between 7 am and 8 am. The command of the arrangements for VIP darshan was handled by temple system in-charge Ashish Dixit and managing trustee Rao Devendra Singh’s representative Jang Bahadur. But in view of the crowd of devotees, currently a ban has been imposed on VIP darshan.
Fraud was being done under the guise of getting VIP darshan.
A large crowd of devotees have come to Omkareshwar since last one week. Due to crowd, VIP ticket counters have been closed by the Trust.
Despite this, some people who are not even pundits are cheating the passengers in the name of VIP darshan. On Friday, he took money from a Mumbai devotee by asking him to do VIP darshan for Rs 2100, after putting him in the queue, the thug said that he will bring the ticket immediately. But when he did not return with the ticket for a long time, the devotee came to know that he had been cheated.
In view of the increasing crowd, local public representatives have demanded from the district administration to have darshan in the sanctum sanctorum of Jyotirlinga Omkareshwar temple from a distance of 10 feet. At present, the darshan of Jyotirlinga is possible even after standing in line for 5 to 6 hours. Policemen have been deployed at different points to provide convenient darshan to the devotees and for security. Teams of home guards and divers are also deployed on the ghats of Narmada.
