Millions of devotees will line the Ganga's banks in the coming days, and Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary wants every step of those ghats safe, clean, and accessible before the first ritual lamp is lit. On Thursday, 5 November 2026, the Chief Minister personally walked the Ganga ghats across Bihar to assess preparations for Chhath Puja 2026 — and left officials with direct orders to deliver.

Posting on X alongside four images from the site visit, CM Choudhary wrote: 'लोक आस्था के महापर्व छठ-2026 की तैयारियों को लेकर गंगा घाटों का निरीक्षण किया' — 'I inspected the Ganga ghats regarding preparations for the great festival of public faith, Chhath 2026.' He directed officials to ensure cleanliness, security, and smooth movement of people, and stated that the comfort and safety of Chhath vratis and devotees is the government's 'supreme priority.'

What the inspection covered — and why it matters at this scale

Chhath Puja is not merely Bihar's largest festival — it is one of the most logistically demanding religious events on India's calendar. The four-day celebration, dedicated to the Sun God, centres almost entirely on river-bank rituals: pre-dawn and sunset offerings made while standing in the water. That means hundreds of thousands of worshippers — many of them elderly women — descending simultaneously onto narrow ghat steps, often in darkness.

Bihar administrations have historically treated ghat readiness as a full state-machinery exercise. Crowd-control deployments, temporary lighting, sanitation blocks, barricading of unsafe stretches, and ambulance positioning along the river front are standard interventions ahead of the festival. By conducting the inspection himself, the Chief Minister signals that this year's arrangements will be held to direct accountability — not delegated quietly.

Cleanliness, security, free movement: the three-point mandate

The three directives CM Choudhary issued — swachhata (cleanliness), suraksha (security), and sugam aavagaman (smooth mobility) — are precise enough to function as an audit checklist. Cleanliness at ghats involves both pre-festival clearing of silt and debris and waste management during the festival days themselves. Security covers both crowd management and emergency response. Smooth movement addresses the perennial bottleneck of pilgrims arriving and departing across narrow riverfront approaches.

Together, they represent the full arc of what can go wrong at a high-density riverside event — and what, when done right, turns a potentially hazardous gathering into a dignified, memorable celebration for millions of families.