KCR reviews Pushkaralu arrangements

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao today reviewed arrangements made for the ongoing Pushkarams at different venues along Godavari river in the state.

Chief Minister who reviewed the arrangements from camp office here, spoke to Ministers T Harish Rao, Jagdish Reddy, Laxma Reddy, Jogu Ramana, Indrakaran Reddy and others, who are monitoring Pushkaralu arrangements at different districts in the state, according to an official release. Rao directed RTC Managing Director Ramana Rao to operate additional buses to ferry devotees, wherever required.

He further directed that transport arrangements should be made for devotees who were coming from Andhra Pradesh to Bhadrachalam and other places in the state. Following directions from the Chief Minister, State Director General of Police (DGP) Anurag Sharma and other senior officers took up an aerial survey from Basar (in Adilabad) to Bhadrachalam (in Khammam).

A helicopter was also placed in stand-by at Bhadrachalam to meet any emergency. In view of the huge rush of devotees today at different ghats resulting in traffic jams at various places, Rao directed that special care should be taken for their bathing arrangements. Additional police forces drawn from Ranga Reddy, Medak, Nalgonda, Mahabubnagar districts were deployed for Pushkar duties, it added.

Bhadrachalam, Kaleshwaram, Dharmapuri and Basar were witnessing heavy rush of devotees and hence senior officers were given responsibilities to review the arrangements. CMO officials were also reviewing the arrangements from Hyderabad, it said. There was a huge surge of devotees to various pushkaralu ghats in the state resulting in traffic snarls on highways in the state on the weekend.