Nearly 3 lakh people missing in Maha Kumbh at Allahabad

New Delhi: The proverbial story of brothers and families getting separated and lost during the Kumbh Mela in Bollywood potboilers is taking place in Allahabad. The Maha Kumbh Mela is the biggest festival and takes place every 12 years in Allahabad. With a massive crowd at the Mela, several people get separated from their families and are lost in the crowd.

The district administration has set up lost and found centres across Allahabad to help reunite those who get separated from their families. Approximately, 2.75 lakh people are reported missing in the Kumbh.

Many of people at the lost and found centre were crying for their missing sons, brothers, old mother or some other family member. When IBN7 reached a centre the people there thought they were the announcers and so that they sought the help and start calling for their missing family members on the IBN7 mike.

The district administration has set up lost and found centres across Allahabad to help reunite those who get separated from their families.

One such pilgrim, Ramaiya Devi, who hails from Sasaram in Bihar, lost her husband and she requested the IBN7 to call out her husband's name. Yashoda, from Gopapur in Chhattisgarh was crying out loudly because she had lost her mother.

The people at the lost and found centres were from different states but their pain was same. They were screaming for their missing family members. A total of 10 non-government camps have been set up in the Maha Kumbh Mela. People come in to the centre and give the names of those missing on small paper chits and then the names are read out.

Rajaram Jee, 88 years old, started a lost and found shivir in Magh Purnima Mela in 1946 at the Kumbh in Allahbad. He said he started helping those lost by using a tin plate and announcing the names and beating the tin plate. He claims to have reunited at least 16 lakh people with their families over the last several Kumbh Melas.

Till now over 2.75 lakh people have been reported to be lost during the Kumbh which includes 97,000 on a single day on Mauni Amavasya. Till now 1.23 lakh people are still missing.

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