One-ton jaggery Ganesha steals the show

Kakinada: A Ganesh idol made from a whopping one ton of jaggery has been installed at Bhanugudi Junction in Kakinada city for the Vinayaka Chavithi festival. The idol was set up by Chintapalli Ganesh and Ungarala Durgarao, with the support of prominent engineer G Satyanarayana.

Several representatives of the Ganesh Nagar Utsav Samithi, including Enimireddy Malakondayya, Duvvuri Subrahmanyam, Dusarlapudi Ramana Raju, Chitnidi Srinivas, and Gatti Satyanarayana, visited the pandal to worship. They praised the organisers for creating an eco-friendly idol from natural materials, noting that such idols do not cause pollution during immersion.

The committee also expressed gratitude to the government for its decision to provide free electricity to Ganesh pandals. However, they suggested that this decision should have been announced a week earlier.

The committee estimates that around 2,000 idols, up to 8 feet in height, will be brought for immersion from the Kakinada urban and rural areas. This number is expected to exceed 6,000 across the entire district. The representatives urged pandal organisers to follow all guidelines for a smooth festival. They requested that immersion ceremonies only be held on designated dates, and that revellers refrain from using fireworks, consuming alcohol, and playing only devotional songs in the pandals. The committee members said that they have toured various areas like Pithapuram, Gollaprolu, Kathipudi, Chebrolu, Tuni, Samarlakota, Peddapuram, Pattipadu, and Jaggampeta, and observed that the festivalsare being celebrated in a spiritual atmosphere in all these places.