PRAYAGRAJ: Sitting in a corner of the ‘
Bhoole Bhatke Shivir’, the eyes of the
family members of 62-year-old Mangal Patel are constantly glued towards the entrance and scan the people every few minutes.
Patel, a resident of Madhya Pradesh had arrived in Prayagraj on January 2 to attend a ‘mundan’ ceremony at
Sangam and is missing. His family members and the volunteers of Bhoole Bhatke Shivir have been looking for him since last few days.
The volunteers, this time, have also shared Patel’s details on the
WhatsApp group, Bharat Sewa Dal, connecting the volunteers of Bhoole Bhatke Shivir across the country and are eagerly awaiting any leads.
Umesh Tiwari, organiser of Bhoole Bhatke Shivir and head of Bharat Seva Dal, told TOI “We have reunited 85 people, including 75 adults and 10 children, in the past four days since the beginning of Magh Mela.”
The family members of Mangal Patel are also staying at Bhoole Bhatke camp in the Mela area, resting their hopes on the volunteers and hoping some of them might bring him along to the shivir someday.
Tiwari, meanwhile, said that the volunteers manning the Bhoole Bhatke Shivir are now using technology re-unite the lost ones with their families.
He said, “Many active volunteers from other states like MP, Bihar, Haryana,
West Bengal and Delhi, who could not come this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, are connected with us in a group formed on popular messaging app to find the missing persons. Our volunteers keep sharing and updating the details of missing persons on the group on frequent intervals.”
Devotees and pilgrims from across the country come to the Magh Mela and camp here on the banks of the Ganga. We have been able to reunite missing people from Sasaram, Pratapgarh,
Jaunpur, Satna, Sidhi, Reewa, Katiyar with their families, Tiwari added.
Volunteers also maintain manual records, and share the details of missing persons on social media sites and popular messaging app to find and reunited them with their families.
IG (Prayagraj zone)
KP Singh told TOI the volunteers of Bhoole Bhatke Shivir are offering a helping hand to police authorities to reunite missing people with their families.
As the 57-day annual religious event gets started on the banks of the Ganga, the volunteers of Bhoole Bhatke Shivir have been serving the mankind with the help of Mela police.