The otherwise deserted Manginapudi beach near Machilipatnam witnessed some lively moments on Wednesday with devotees thronging the place for a holy dip on the occasion of the auspicious ‘kartika pournami’.
At Punnami Ghat in the city there was hectic activity right from the morning till evening with devotees first thronging for Karthika Pournami snanam in the early hours and later in the evening five different kinds of Nadi Haarathulu given.
The Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam Kolatam artistes performed on Vijayawada streets before reaching the Punnami Ghat as part of the rituals. Several VIPs including the APCC president Botsa Satyanarayana and his wife Botsa Jhansi also attended for paying prayers.
The Manginapudi Beach, which was closed down for the public in the wake of the alarming increase in the number of deaths taking place here and had remained desolate for the last several months, gathered momentum thanks to the holy dip ritual associated with Karthika Pournami.
To prevent any possible untoward incident, Krishna district Collector Budha Prakash Jyothi reviewed the arrangements made for the pilgrim rush. The visitors carried out the rituals amid tight security. Uniformed police personnel seated in auto-rickshaws moving around the place, kept a hawk’s vigil to ensure that nobody crossed the barricades erected to prevent people from moving beyond what was demarcated as a ‘safe zone’.
Revenue Divisional Officer I. Venkateswara Reddy informed the Collector that nearly 35,000 devotees had visited the beach on Wednesday. Traffic was regulated at Tallapaka Baddi centre by creating separate routes for vehicles and pedestrians.
He said that barricades were erected on either side of the beach for the convenience of devotees who came here for a holy dip and 25 expert swimmers were deployed at five different points to counter any untoward incident.
The local MLA Perni Venkataramaiah had contributed a sum of Rs.3 lakh for erection of barricades at the beach.
After being informed that adequate number of changing rooms had been set up for devotees in addition to proper drinking water arrangement, the Collector expressed his satisfaction and complimented the team of officials present there.
Joint Collector P. Usha Kumari, Bandar MDO G. Suryanarayana, MRO Siva Kumar, former sarpanch of Tallapalem V. Ravisankar and others were present.
