Traffic jams, blocked washrooms, lack of buses and power cuts trouble devotees at Medaram

Devotees attending the Sammakka Saralamma Jatara at Medaram faced severe hardships as traffic snarls, blocked washrooms, water shortages, and poor coordination among government departments caused long delays, leaving many pilgrims stranded and staging protests for relief.

Mulugu: Devotees heading to Medaram to attend the Sammakka Saralamma Jatara faced severe hardships as traffic went haywire, with government machinery virtually giving up traffic management and the police watching helplessly.

Traffic turned chaotic from Pasra to Medaram from Friday night till the morning hours on Saturday, leaving devotees travelling in TGRTC buses and private vehicles stranded for hours on the road. According to some devotees, it took 14 hours to reach Hanamkonda.

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Devotees who left Warangal bus station at 6 pm on Friday reached Tadwai only in the morning. Modern technology and AI knowledge, which the government claims to be using, failed to yield results in traffic control.

Many devotees were seen walking towards Medaram after getting down from buses stuck in traffic jams. Vehicles were said to be stranded for nearly four kilometres on the Medaram Pasra stretch. The situation eased slightly by Saturday afternoon.

The public complained that Congress ministers had boasted of laying a double road at a cost of Rs. 250 crore, but it proved to be of no use. On the other hand, a large number of devotees were stranded at Medaram as RTC buses were not available for their return journey.

Many staged protests at bus stands, demanding RTC officials arrange buses. It was said that a serious lack of coordination among the RTC, revenue, ITDA, endowments, electricity and police departments caused inconvenience to devotees.

Devotees also resorted to a flash protest on Friday night over power cuts, failure of the queue system, alleged police attacks on devotees and clashes with priests. A tribal priest, Siddaboina Arun, complained that police and other government officials ill treated them and did not allow them into the Sammakka Saralamma gaddelu.

Apart from traffic jams, the public at Medaram suffered due to the failure of the sanitation system, with washrooms getting blocked and water supply inadequate. Elders and children found it difficult to relieve themselves as all washrooms were blocked.