Home Minister M. Sucharita on Saturday evening visited the Kanaka Durga temple for darshan of the presiding deity in Mahishasura Mardini avataram. The deity was adorned as Durga Devi from 5 a.m. to 12 p.m. and appeared in the Mahishasura Mardini avataram from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Speaking to mediapersons later, the Home Minister said besides the welfare of the people in the State, she had prayed to the Goddess for protection of women, that they should become aware of their rights through laws such as Disha Act and that the crimes against women should come down.
Agriculture Minister Kurasala Kannababu said he had sought the deity’s blessings for farmers’ prosperity and said that the Chief Minister wanted to scale-up fund allocation for development of temples in the State.
Minister for Social Welfare P. Viswarup, MLAs Malladi Vishnu and V. Rajani were among other officials who visited the temple and offered prayers. DGP D. Gautam Sawang also visited the temple and inspected the place where boulders had rolled down from the hillock, causing injuries to three persons.
Fillip to Vedic schools
At a Veda Sabha held in the Maha Mandapam, Department of Endowments Commissioner P. Arjun Rao said the government was contemplating steps to promote Vedic schools and encourage children studying in them. There was a proposal to replicate the syllabus of the Vedic institutions run by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams in all such schools across the State.
Principal Secretary to the government M. Girija Shankar said priests were the backbone of Devasthanams and their welfare was important.
Sri Durga Malleswara Swamy Varla Devasthanam Executive Officer Suresh Babu said felicitating Vedic priests during Dasara festivities was a 30-year-old tradition in the temple. He urged the official to upgrade the posts of the Vedic priests who were working as junior assistants in temples.
Fifty senior priests drawn from prominent temples in the State, including Annavaram, Srisailam, Amaravati, Simhachalam and Kanaka Durga Devasthanam were felicitated on the occasion and 18 of them were from Sri Durga Malleswara Devasthanam.
Each of them was given a cash incentive of ₹4,000 and prasadam and honoured with a shawl.
