Tuesday saw pilgrims headed to 80 ghats across Mahabubnagar and Nalgonda districts for a holy dip during the Krishna Pushkarams finding it a relatively hassle-free and satisfying experience.
A major reason attributed for this is the less number of VIPs occupying road and ghat space, feel senior officials in both districts. What is important though is that the administration is gearing up to ensure that Thursday – ‘Pournami’ (Full Moon Day) that is considered very auspicious. It also marks ‘Raksha Bandhan’, when brothers pledge and reiterate their protection to their sisters as ‘Rakhis’ are tied on their right wrist.
Continuing with the administration’s policy of ensuring that the rush is spread out and that pilgrims do not throng one particular bathing ghat and crowd things, senior officials went around ghats trying to maintain them clean and friendly enough to attract pilgrims. There was no let up on cleanliness and sanitation and testing of water samples and police kept a watchful eye as usual.
If Mahabubnagar Collector T.K. Sreedevi went to Gondimalla, the Greenfield ghat near Alampur and interacted with presspersons, Nalgonda Collector P. Satyanarayana Reddy decided instead to spend the day reviewing a broad spectrum of Pushkaram-related subjects from the district headquarters itself. Prime on Mr. Reddy’s agenda was the focus on Mattapally that Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan would visit to take a Pushkar bath on August 20. “Using the video-conferencing mode, I went through the checklist covering all the subjects. I asked Joint Collector M. Satyanarayana, Superintendent of Police Prakash Reddy and other senior officers to visit all the important ghats in the district and come up with situation reports to ensure that everything was fine,” Mr. Reddy said.
