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City gears up for Dasara
Krishna district collector A Babu and Durga temple executive officer (EO) A Surya Kumari are overseeing the works. Though the State government is yet to sanction the budget for the prestigious festival, sources said that the government would spend a whopping Rs 5 crore this year.
Vijayawada: The city is all set for conducting Dasara as a State festival from October 1 to 11 atop Indrakeeladri. Durga temple officials are racing against time to complete all arrangements by Friday. Endowments, Police, Revenue, Municipal Corporation, Water Resources, Road and Buildings and other departments are working together to create facilities for this festival. Queue lines were constructed from Vinayaka temple with five rows, of which two will be allotted for free darshan devotees.
Krishna district collector A Babu and Durga temple executive officer (EO) A Surya Kumari are overseeing the works. Though the State government is yet to sanction the budget for the prestigious festival, sources said that the government would spend a whopping Rs 5 crore this year.
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and other elected representatives wanted to conduct the Dasara festival on par with the Mysore festival. The Durga temple authorities are expecting more than 10 lakh devotees visit the temple during the festival. They said that an estimated 2 lakh devotees would visit the shrine every day.
On Moola Nakshatram day the rush is expected to be around 3 lakh to 5 lakh devotees. Antaralaya darshan will be allowed on all days of the fete except the day of Moola Nakshatram. Interestingly, this year the prestigious Mallikarjuna Maha Mandapam will not be used for the festivities due to security reasons. Police Commissioner D Gautam Sawang, DCPs and Temple EO Surya Kumari inspected the Mallikarjuna Maha Mandapam and decided not to allow devotees during the festival as the works remain incomplete.
This year, the officials have opened tonsure halls at the vacant site (old police quarter site) in front of Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC). About 1,200 barbers will be engaged for tonsuring.The festivities will begin on October 1 at 9 am the goddess’ Nijaroopa darshan. This is for the first time that the presiding deity Durga Devi would give this darshan to devotees,” said EO Surya Kumari.
Stating that all arrangements would be in place for the festivities, the EO said that VMC would handle sanitation. She informed that special arrangements to provide laddu prasadam to the devotees on all the nine days of the festival.(DSR)
