In the good old days there were few Chhath devotees and many a volunteer willing to help. Today it is the reverse. Too many devotees, too few volunteers. Even the river isn’t cooperating much by changing course.

Residents recalled that in the mid-seventies, young boys like Sanjeev Kumar, Fanta (who operated a tea stall), Mantu, Sudhiranjan Mukherjee, Vivek Chatterjee and Amit Kumar had started free services to help Chhath devotees at the Manik Sarkar Ghat.

“After Sanjeev’s sudden death, residents formed the Sanjeev Smriti Chhath Committee and took up the responsibility of maintaining the Manik Sarkar Ghat,” said Manjesh Singh of the committee.

Chhath has been observed on the banks of the Ganga at Bhagalpur for ages. Devotees have traditionally worshipped Chhatti Maiyya on the river’s banks. But with time the river has changed course, creating problems for devotees.

In the early days, there were few devotees so there wasn’t much of a crowd. But Chhath has now turned into a big affair — complete with huge crowds and observed with much fanfare. So the shifting of the river and the garbage problems have hit it badly.

“There were very few Chhath pujas here earlier. We used to visit ghats where there were few visitors. But today it has turned into a big festival with many people participating,” recalled Tapan Chatterjee, an old-timer of Bhagalpur.

“This is the reason why residents livings near the ghats and local clubs or social organisations are coming forward to arrange facilities at the respective ghats,” said Chunna Singh, a lawyer living on Manik Sarkar Ghat Road.

“The ghat here has its own significance because a virtual straight road connects it with Alliganj on the city’s outskirts. This straight road helps devotees as they just walk down for Chhath,” said Manjesh Singh.

“People prefer this ghat,” said committee secretary Rajiv Kumar. “But shifting away of the river has compounded problems. Earlier, the Bhagalpur Municipal Corporation used to dump solid waste on the river’s banks but after objection from residents the practice was stopped. We have worked hard to remove waste for years.”

According to him, residents are cleaning up the ghats. “We used to provide free milk and other facilities to devotees earlier,” Rajiv said.

Prakesh Kumar Mandal, another active committee member, however, said that because of the river shifting far away and drying up of water at the Manik Sarkar Ghat, additional hands will be needed this time to make the ghat water fit for Chhath.