Faith, culture, and infrastructure converged in Yamunanagar on Sunday, November 15, 2026, as Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini attended the state-level Chhath Puja ceremony and announced that his government had built a dedicated bathing ghat in Karnal at a cost of ₹4.48 crore — a concrete signal to the state's large Purvanchal migrant community that their traditions have official backing.

Prayers for every Haryanvi at the Yamunanagar ghat

Standing at the state-level celebration, CM Saini offered prayers to Chhathi Maiya and the Sun God, seeking 'happiness, peace, prosperity and well-being' for all residents of Haryana. The gathering drew devotees who observe one of the most demanding Hindu fasts in the calendar — a 36-hour waterless vrat that bookends sunset and sunrise arghya (offerings to the sun) over four days. Saini described the festival as 'prakriti, aastha aur sanskriti ka adbhut sangam' — 'a wondrous confluence of nature, faith and culture' — that connects people to their roots.

Who Haryana's Purvanchal community is — and what they built

Haryana's industrial belt, agricultural fields, and construction sector run significantly on the labour of migrants from Bihar, Jharkhand, and eastern Uttar Pradesh — collectively referred to as the Purvanchal community. Saini acknowledged this directly, noting that these men and women have made 'an important contribution to the state's progress through their hard work and dedication.' That acknowledgment is not merely ceremonial: successive Haryana governments have periodically upgraded river ghats and community infrastructure to ease the observance of Chhath, which requires clean, accessible waterfronts at specific astronomical moments.

Four new ghats and the ₹4.48 crore Karnal project

The headline infrastructure announcement is the new snan ghat (bathing ghat) in Karnal, built at a declared cost of ₹4.48 crore. Beyond Karnal, the CM stated that ghats for Chhath Puja observance have also been constructed in Panchkula, Panipat, and Sonipat — four districts that together cover a wide arc of Haryana's industrial and urban geography. The spread of these sites tracks closely with where the Purvanchal workforce is most concentrated, from the NCR-adjacent towns of Sonipat and Panipat to the foothills city of Panchkula.

The state-level event format — hosting Chhath as an official government ceremony rather than leaving it to community self-organisation — is itself a marker of how much political weight the festival now carries in a state where Purvanchal voters are a meaningful constituency. As diyas glow along freshly built ghats this week, the government's message is clear: Haryana's growth story belongs to everyone who built it.