Muzaffarpur, July 8: Plans are afoot to ensure a trouble-free Shravan Mela, scheduled to start on July 17. The disaster management department of the state government has prepared a standard operating procedure for a smooth fair.

Revenue and land reforms minister-cum-chairman of State Fair Authority Ramai Ram said: “The state government has allotted Rs 10 lakh to Garibnath Dham in Muzaffarpur to facilitate the necessary arrangements to the devotees to offer holy water to Lord Shiva during the mela.

Ram told The Telegraph today that five closed circuit televisions would be installed inside and outside the premises of Garibnath Dham on the eve of Shravan Mela.

Ram today reviewed the arrangements at the Garibnath Dham with health minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey, in the presence of the divisional commissioner (Tirhut) S.M. Raju, Muzaffarpur district magistrate (DM) Santosh Kumar Mall besides the DM and SP of Vaishali district.

Lakhs of devotees visit the dham, with the onset of the month of Shravan, after collecting water from Ganga at Pahleza Ghat in Vaishali.

The disaster management department has outlined a plan for the necessary and requisite needs, besides the need of the officials to be alert during the mela to help the devotees.

“The devotees will be taken care of right from Pahleza Ghat in Vaishali to Garibnath Dham in Muzaffarpur. Temporary police pickets would be set up on the route to keep a strict vigil on snatchers, eve-teasers and other rowdy elements,” Ram said, adding that he personally inspected long stretches of roads from Pahleza Ghat to Muzaffarpur.

Ramai said he had asked the authorities of National Highways Authority of India to drop sands on the roads, which were dig up for constructing four lanes on the said routes.

Mall said health camps and brief stopovers en route to the fair would be opened to treat the ailing devotees and provide them temporary respite from exhaustion.