PRAYAGRAJ, Oct. 9 -- The teerth purohits have been demanding extension of their seating arrangements from 2019 Kumbh onwards in view of rising count of pilgrims arriving at the Sangam. Each family of these hereditary priests have been allotted a "Takhat" (wooden platform) in the mela area for attending to pilgrims' requirements including guiding them in every mela and assisting them in completing the rituals. The Prayagwal Sabha, organisation of these teerth purohits, have now written to UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath for helping them in getting the count of takhats increased to 250 in mela area before 2031 Kumbh. According to president of Prayagwal Sabha, Pandit Rajendra Paliwal, the increasing count of devotees arriving at Sangam in the annually held Magh Mela, the Kumbh and Mahakumbh is making things tough to handle for teerth purohits. Also, devotees visit all through the year for performing different rituals from all over the country. Presently, around 1,000 odd teerth purohits are registered with the Prayagwal Sabha. As per Paliwal, since the focus of both the central as well as state governments has been on organising the mela at grand level, the crowd of pilgrims has also witnessed a steep rise since 2019 onwards. He further said that presently 112 'Takhats' had been allotted in the official list, and since the entire mela land around Sangam falls under the purview of the army, a list of 'Takhats' or wooden cots with temporary tin shed was also present with the officers concerned. As per him till 2001, there were 98 'Takhats' in the official list of both army and mela committee which was increased to 112 in 2013. However, the same proved insufficient during Mahakumbh 2025, which led to problems in managing the movement and daily requirement of devotees arriving in such large numbers at Sangam. The recently concluded Mahakumbh 2025 witnessed over 66 crore pilgrims visiting the mela which was never ever witnessed in the history of the mela before....