The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Over three lakh devotees throng Indrakeeladri

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Tuesday, Oct 07, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Over three lakh devotees throng Indrakeeladri

Staff Reporter

Endowments Minister offers silk ‘vastrams’ to deity

-PHOTO: CH.VIJAYA BHASKAR

First attempt: ‘Aksharabhyasam’ being performed for a child on the auspicious ‘Moola nakshatram’ day on Indrakeeladri in Vijayawada on Monday.

VIJAYAWADA: More than three lakh devotees thronged Indrakeeladri, the abode of Sri Durga Malleswara Swarmivarla Devasthanam, to offer prayers to the presiding deity on the occasion of the auspicious ‘Moola nakshatram’ on Monday.

The presiding deity was adorned as ‘Saraswati Devi’ and the temple was opened at 2 a.m. Endowments Minister J. Ratnakar Rao offered silk robes to the presiding deity.

The temple authorities stopped sale of all darshan tickets and allowed the pilgrims in a single queue to clear the rush. J. Phanindranath Reddy, a devotee from Hyderabad, presented a silver ‘Gajavahanam’ to the deity, whose value was estimated as Rs.11 lakh. Executive Officer T. Chandra Kumar received it on behalf of the temple.

The authorities suspended operation of special vehicles for transporting the aged, physically challenged, media persons and members of the festival committee to the hillock in view of the heavy rush. The VVIPs were, however, allowed to travel in their own vehicles.

Embarrassment

The Endowments Minister had to bear some embarrassing moments because of the “extra precautions” taken by the police who refused to allow the fleet of cars following his vehicle near the Police Control Room, where barricades were erected. After a heated argument for nearly 30 minutes, the Minister and his associates had to proceed in two vehicles.

Mr. Ratnakar Rao offered prayers and later inspected ‘prasadam’ counters, queue lines and arrangements for ‘navaratri’ festival.

Later, speaking to reporters, he said that the Government would develop all the temples in the State with a budget of Rs. 500 crore. It was planning to put the revenues generated by the temples for their own use mainly to improve the facilities instead of depositing them in fixed deposits, he said.

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