Ranchi, Jul 21 (IANS): There will be no Kanwar Yatra, no mela and no Puja for devotees during the auspicious Shravan month for the second year in a row at the famous Shiva temple in Deoghar, Jharkhand, which is one of the 12 Jyotirlingas in the country.

The auspicious Shravan month is beginning from July 25.

Due to the fear of the third wave of the coronavirus, the world famous Shravani Mela will not be organised at Baidyanath Dham located in the temple town of Deoghar and in Basukinath in Jarmundi block of Dumka district in Jharkhand.

Santhal Pargana DIG Sudarshan Prasad Mandal chaired a virtual meeting on Wednesday with the senior police officials of Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal and asked them to take the necessary steps to prevent unnecessary crowding at these two places.

He said that to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the government has directed to impose a ban on the entry of the devotees during the auspicious month of Shravan in Deoghar and Basukinath.

In the meeting it was decided that awareness will be created among the people especially in the bordering states over the ban on the devotees so that the people and the administration can be saved from trouble.

The DIG said that unless new orders come from the Centre or the state government, the people should avoid coming to the temples and urged the people to pay obeisance to Lord Shiva from their homes. In the meeting it was decided that inter-state check posts will be created to prevent entry into these two districts.

Every year more than 35 lakh devotes offer 'holy water' on Shiva Linga in Shravan month, but it was banned last year and this year too due to the raging pandemic.