By IANS,
Patna : Thousands of Hindu devotees bathed in various rivers including the Ganga Monday to mark the full moon festival. Most of the devotees were women.
Ignoring the authorities’ warning not to use dangerous and unsafe river banks, thousands of devotees, mainly from rural areas, thronged different banks in Patna and nearby areas, to take a dip on the occasion of Kartik Purnima, the full moon day in the month of Kartik according to the Hindu calendar.
Patna district magistrate Jitendra Kumar Sinha said that the administration had declared 39 banks dangerous and had urged devotees to avoid them.
Hindus believe that taking a dip in the river on the occasion washes off all sins.
Sinha said thousands of devotees poured into Patna Sunday to offer prayers and bathe in the river.
The government has made special security arrangements, he said.
People in Bhagalpur, Munger, Gaya, Muzaffarpur, Madhepura and other places visited temples and offered prayers.