Nashik hosts the Simhastha Kumbha Mela every 12 years and during the Kumbh Mela millions of devotees across the globe visits Nashik. The next one is to be held in 2015. Certainly, the preparations for the Simhastha Kumbha Mela at Nashik next year are likely to get a boost as PM designate Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit in June. A delegation of city leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has planned meeting with Narendra Modi in the first week of June to get funds for the coming Simhastha Kumbh Mela. “Modi will tour Nashik during the first week of June and inspect the preparations and other related things,” stated deputy mayor Satish Kulkarni.
In the year 2002-03, a delegation of BJP had met then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpeyi during National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. The union government had given fund of Rs 100 crore at that time for the Kumbh Mela. This time, coincidently it will be the BJP and NDA government at the centre which has increased the hopes of Nashkites.
Already the state government had prepared plan of Rs 2500 crore for Simhastha including Nashik Municipal Corporation”s plan of Rs 1071 crore which includes most of the projects. The city BJP leaders are willing to get maximum funds from the union government and hence have planned meeting with Modi. The Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) will receive 33 per cent of the Central and state funds. The projects include roads, Sadhugram, temporary toilets, parking facilities, water supply and sanitation, electricity supply, health and medical facilities, land acquisition etc. The problems include placating the sadhus, acquisition of land for the Sadhugram, which has been engulfed by political activists and contamination of the Godavari River.The state government is also likely to recruit hundreds of temporary cleaners for the garbage even as the NMC requires about 2,000 sanitation employees.
