President Pranab Mukherjee, who is on his southern sojourn till July 8, offered prayers at Sri Lakshminarasimha Swamy temple here on Sunday. Accompanied by Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan, Mr. Mukherjee arrived from Hyderabad by helicopter at Vadaigudem around 11.30 a.m. and was received by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
Mr. Rao himself flew in from Karimnagar half-an-hour earlier to receive the President. Later, all of them drove uphill to the shrine where they spent 15 minutes in Andal Nilayam before entering the temple.
A 16-member team of temple priests and Vedic pundits accorded welcome to Mr. Mukherjee with
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The Governor and Chief Minister explained to Mr. Mukherjee, with the aid of designs, developmental works undertaken in the temple. Mr. Rao informed that the temple will be developed over 2,000 acres down the hill and the sanctum sanctorum will be totally redesigned. Yadagirigutta Temple Development Authority, Vice-Chairman G. Kishan Rao and designer Ananda Sai also participated in the discussions.
The authorities told The Hindu that the President expressed happiness over the new design. Later, he returned to Andal Nilayam where he took rest for 15 minutes before proceeding to helipad. Mr. Mukherjee flew back to Rashtrapati Nilayam at Bolarum in Hyderabad at 1.30 p.m. Endowments Minister A. Indrakaran Reddy, Energy Minister G. Jagadishwar Reddy and others were present
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In view of President Pranab Mukherjee’ s visit to Sri Lakshminarasimha Swamy Tempple, Yadagirigutta almost came to a standstill due to unprecedented security restrictions on Sunday.
The police and temple administration did not allow any devotees to the hill shrine until 2 p.m. in the afternoon.