Telangana: Vemulawada decked up for Maha Shivaratri jatara
The three-day annual fair Maha Shivaratri jatara began on colorful note in Sri Rajarajeshwara Swamy temple in Vemulawada
Rajanna-Sircilla: The three-day annual fair Maha Shivaratri jatara began on colorful note in Sri Rajarajeshwara Swamy temple in Vemulawada, with the arrival of devotees to the shrine to take part in their beloved god’s jatara on Friday. Endowment Minister A Indrakaran Reddy along with other Ministers Koppula Eashwar and Gangula Kamalakar and local MLA Ch Ramesh Babu will present silk cloths to the presiding deity on behalf of the state government on Saturday morning.
Continuing the age-old tradition, TTD representatives will also submit silk cloth to the lord shiva. District administration has developed ‘Shivaratri Jathara App’ for the convenience of devotees. On the other hand, elaborate arrangements have been made for jatara by spending Rs 3.30 crore since about three to four lakh devotees are expected to visit the shrine from different parts of Telangana as well as adjacent states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharastra and Chhattisgarh on the occasion of maha shivaratri.
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Collector Anurag Jayanthi and Superintendent of Police Akhil Mahajan, who had conducted meetings with officials to review arrangements, have allocated zones to officials of different departments by dividing the temple town into different zones.
TSRTC authorities are operating 850 buses in different routes to transport devotees from different parts of the state. On the other hand, 14 mini buses are also being operated from Thuppapur (Vemulawada bus stand) to the main shrine to transport pilgrims free of cost.
Besides decorating all allied shrines as well as temple town with attractive lighting, pandals are arranged for the convenience of the devotees. Besides filling the temple tank with freshwater, showers are also arranged. Special queue lines have also been arranged to have darshan of the presiding deity by the devotees. Giving top priority for sanitation, temple and Vemulwada municipal authorities have deployed their staff in a big way to maintain the shrine always clean. Temporary toilets and bio-urinals are also established.
Medical camps have also setup in different places including temple tank, allied temples, bus stand and other areas to provide medical support to devotees. A VIP parking place at the temple tank area and normal parking places are also arranged in different areas of the town. 1,200 police personnel of different cadres have been deployed to conduct jatara in a peaceful manner by maintaining law and order. CCTV cameras have also been installed across the temple town.
A huge dais and other arrangements are made at the temple tank parking place to organize Shivarchana cultural programmes.
Temple executive officer Krishna Prasad said that they made all arrangements for the convenience of devotees. Drinking water and butter milk would be supplied to the devotees who stand in queue lines, he said.
