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Thousands flock to Indrakeeladri
Highlights
In all, 60,000 devotees thronged the Kanakadurga temple atop Indrakeeladri on the second day of the five-day Bhavani deeksha viramana on Friday. Clad in red robes, devotees from different parts of the State continued to descend on the city by different modes of transport in the early hours.
Vijayawada: In all, 60,000 devotees thronged the Kanakadurga temple atop Indrakeeladri on the second day of the five-day Bhavani deeksha viramana on Friday. Clad in red robes, devotees from different parts of the State continued to descend on the city by different modes of transport in the early hours.
The authorities have decided to keep open the temple from 3 am to 11 pm to reduce inconvenience to the devotees. Bathing ghats witnessed heavy rush from the midnight itself and the arrangements made for tonsuring at the ghats were being used by the devotees. As the officials were keen on effective crowd management and monitoring of the crowd at various points round-the-clock, devotees were asked to go to bathing ghats where the crowd was less. For the convenience of pilgrims coming from distant places, the provision of free bus service was extended up to bus station and railway station.
The temple received an income of Rs 18.95 lakh through sale of prasadam and tickets on the first day of deeksha viramana. The temple provided meals to about 5,000 devotees at Sringeri Peetham Satram at Arjuna Veedhi and Majeti Kalyana Mandapam at Brahmana Veedhi. As many as 10 buses shuttled between the temple, bus station and railway station round-the-clock.
Temple executive officer Ch Narsing Rao said: “Bhavani devotees rush was dipped on Friday as the devotees don’t prefer to relinquish their deeksha on Fridays and Tuesdays. The devotees rush would increase on Saturday and Sunday as majority of them want to give up their deeksha on an auspicious day”. He said that drinking water was being supplied to pilgrims at two different points on the hillock. Besides conducting ‘annadanam’ for 5,000 pilgrims a day, ‘pulihora’ packets were being supplied free of cost to the devotees under the hill, said temple executive officer Narasing Rao.
Devotees flock to temples on New Year
Meanwhile, devotees stood in serpentine queues to offer special prayers at various temples in the city as part of New Year celebrations. Surprisingly, it was the youth, who turned in good numbers at the temples, and a large number of students could be spotted there. Scores of devotees thronged the Kanakadurga temple at Indrakeeladri and the Lord Vinayaka temple on canal road, One Town. The Saibaba temple near Maris Stella College was abuzz and long queues were seen. Special mass was held in all the churches in the city on Thursday night and Friday morning. Crackers were burst to welcome the New Year. Police exercised a strict vigil and police personnel were deployed at various places to keep a check on revellers.
Our Bureau
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