Omicron casts shadow on Mukkoti festivities at Bhadradri

Bhadrachalam: The Omicron scare, which has shaken a score of the nations, has an imminent impact on the 'Mukkoti' festivities like Teppothsavam and Uttara Dwara darshanam.

The historical Bhadradri temple conducts the two main events on a grandscale. The events of Sri Rama Navai also called Brahmotsavalu (Celestial Wedding of Lord Rama) and 12 days festival of Mukkoti in Bhadrachalam. Unfortunately, for the last two years devotees were left disappointed due to restriction of numbers at these events. In April this year, the celestial wedding programme of Lord Rama with consort Sita was also conducted with no devotees participating in temple premises.

But this year the devotees were expecting the celebrations of the Mukkoti will be conducted on a grand scale because the Covid positive case drastically came down in the district and the State also. The Endowments department also thought the same way and released a schedule of the events of the Mukkoti celebrations beginning from January 3 to 15.

They also planned to conduct Teppotsavam, which will be celebrated in the Godavari river on Jan 12 and Uttara Dwara Darshanam on Jan 13 amid devotees.

But now with the Omicron scare, the temple officials are a worried lot on how to go about the celebrations. They are discussing with higher officials of the Endowments department on conducting the events. K Hari Sastry, a devotee, expressed his disappointment over not getting a chance to participate in the events this year too.