Prayagraj Kumbh Mela enters Guinness Book of World Records

Prayagraj Kumbh Mela 2019 has added its name to the Guinness Book of World Records with the largest gathering of people at one place, the largest cleaning campaign and the largest painting program at the public place. UP government under CM Yogi Adityanath along with various NGOs and volunteers, has left no stone unturned to make the Kumbh Mela 2019 a memorable one for all the devotees. Ministry of Culture stated that more than 22 million pilgrims took a holy dip in Sangam out of which more than one million were foreigners.

Ministry of Culture, in a statement, said, “A three-member team from the Guinness World Records visited Prayagraj for the purpose. Exercises at a large-scale were performed before the team for four days, from February 28 to March 3.”

Kumbh Mela set Guinness World Record when a massive sanitation work was undertaken, where a large number of people wearing mask and broom in their hands descended on the street to clean the holy city of Prayagraj.

Earlier on Friday, the Prayagraj Mela Authority (PMA) had set a Guinness World Record for “most contribution to a handprint painting on the theme of ‘Jai Gange’ in eight hours”. The record was set up under ‘Paint My City’ initiative of Government of India. It saw a record participation of 7,664 people from various age groups. A noteworthy fact is that the earlier record was held by Seoul in which 4,675 people had taken part.

Prior to this, on February 28, the PMA had set the Guinness World Record for the “largest parade of the buses”. Speaking of the world record, the statement read, “Around 503 shuttle buses were pressed into service on the highway in one go for the team on February 28. Several people participated in a painting exercise on March 1 and 10,000 workers engaged in cleaning at the Kumbh, all performing their duties together”. Earlier, the record for the largest parade of the buses was held by Abu Dhabi, where in December 2010, 390 buses had a parade.

The grand festival which started on January 14 will end today with the sixth and final ‘Shahi Snan’ (royal bath) on the pious eve of Maha Shivratri.

This year during Kumbh Mela, the Uttar Pradesh cabinet meeting took place at Prayagraj for the first time. A number of important decisions were also taken at the cabinet meeting. The cabinet made ‘Uri’, a movie based on the surgical strikes carried out by India on the terror launchpads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, tax-free. President of India, Ramnath Kovind too visited the Prayagraj to attend the holy gathering, where he not only performed the iconic Ganga Aarti but also had a word with the local sadhus, while he inaugurated the ‘Gandhian Resurgence Summit’. Kumbh Mela forms an integral part of the country’s culture and it must be appreciated that the BJP government gave it the importance it deserved.