Tirupati: Gangamma temple witnesses heavy rush of devotees as Jatara concludes

Tirupati: On the last day of Jatara on Tuesday, a large number of devotees more so the women turned up to have darshan of Goddess Gangamma.

Anticipating the rush, over 1,000 police personnel including all cadres

were deployed to ensure smooth movement of devotees for darshan and also the Jatara concludes incident free. City MLA Bhumana Karunakar Redd the man behind the week-long spiritual carnival of the folk Goddess celebrated as State festival this year camped along with Mayor Dr R Sirisha and commissioner D Haritha at the shrine right

from the morning to late evening, monitoring the devotee rush and gearing up the temple staff to do their best to provide darshan without much delay.

The shrine was thrown open for public darshan in the morning after Abhishekam and special Alankaram of the deity by the temple priests including Ramakrishna and Murali. Within a couple of hours, the devotee rush swelled, leading to the queue line stretching outside, taking 5 to 6 hours for darshan.

The temple management arranged two more queue lines to avoid people jostling and ensure orderly movement of the devotees.

To ease congestion, the temple management with the cooperation of the municipal corporation made arrangements at the sprawling vegetable main market, adjacent to the temple, for the women devotees to prepare Pongali, a practice widely followed by women during the Jatara. The women devotees offer Pongali as prasadam to Goddess Gangamma.

In the city, many individuals, institutions, trade and business houses organised Annadanam and distributed Ambili (specially made gruel) and buttermilk at various places on the occasion of Jatara.

Vemana Vignana Kendram, Babji Anugraha Seva Trust founder Mubarak Banu along trustee Sheik Mohamma Rehaman and manager S Mohammad distributed buttermilk pockets near the temple to the devotees.

Temple sources said the week-long Jatara will come to an end with Viswarupa Darshanam of the Goddess and Chempa Narukudu (dismantling of the huge clay idol put up at the shrine) after midnight.