Amidst legal wrangles and relief from the High Court, the Bathini Goud family is getting ready to distribute fish ‘prasadam’ for asthma patients from Saturday afternoon at the Exhibition Grounds in Nampally.
The distribution will continue till Sunday afternoon. The fish ‘prasadam’ is administered on ‘Mrigishira Karthi’, which normally coincides with the onset of the monsoon.
Even as the district administration is busy making arrangements for the smooth conduct of the event, following directions from the High Court on Friday, hundreds of visitors from different parts of the country have already arrived at the venue.
While for some it’s a first, there are those who are on their second and third visits, with asthma patients required to have the ‘prasadam’ for three consecutive years. Taking shelter under the sheds put up inside the venue, patients, especially elders, have begun forming queues.
“We came to know about the ‘prasadam’ through fellow villagers; we came here for my wife. We are hopeful that she will get relief from asthma,” said Ranjith Babu of Maharashtra’s Lathur district.
Seventy-year-old Saroja from Mumbai says the ‘prasadam’ has yielded good results for her after she took it for two consecutive years. “My granddaughter has accompanied me here this time,” she adds.
Asthma patients have also come from the States of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Odisha.
“Normal medicines did me no good. On seeing my plight, a relative suggested the fish medicine. I came to the city with my father to give it a shot,” said Lucky Goswami, an accountant from Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad.
Bathini Harinath Goud, head of the family that administers the medicine, said the home-made ancestral remedy consists of a live fish (‘murrel’) stuffed with the ‘medicine’.
Mr. Goud said the distribution would commence by noon on Saturday, after a puja at their residence at Doodbowli in the Old City.
The fisheries department has made arrangements to supply 50,000 murrels and these have reached the Rajendranagar farm.
“We will shift them to the venue tomorrow,” said Commissioner K. Praveen Kumar. Each murrel will be sold for Rs.15.
The city police too are making elaborate security arrangements at the venue to prevent recurrence of any stampede-like situation during the distribution as had happened last year, leading to the death of two people.
Meanwhile, Jana Vignana Vedika (JVV) said it would video record the prasadam distribution and submit it to the court.
