Unique Durga pandal spreads message on drug menace in Dubbak

The Yuva Kiranam Sports Association was set up in the late 1980s by a group of sports enthusiasts.

Siddipet: The organisers of Navarathri festivities in Dubbak set a new path to follow as they decided to spread awareness of the drug menace besides organising Dasara festivities in their locality.

In the wake of increased drug consumption among the youth, Yuva Kiranam Sports Association, which has been installing the Ganesh idol in the 20th ward for the past 35 years, decided to educate the youth, parents and a cross-section of people on the effects of drug consumption.

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They decorated one side of the goddess Durga pandal with anti-drug slogans and printed various news reports published on drug menace on the pandal. The organisers have started this trend during the Ganesh festivities in 2023. They had spread awareness of the importance of enrolling as voters besides educating the visitors to the their pandal on the importance of exercising their franchise during the elections.

Speaking to Telangana, the president of the association Macha Shiva Kumar said they had decided to educate people on the importance of voting since the festival came just before the assembly elections. During the 2024 Ganesh festivities, Shiva said that they decorated the pandal with slogans and news clips on cybercrime.

After a tremendous response to their campaign, he said that they decided to install goddess Durga idol for the first this year and continued the trend of educating on some social issues. The pandal has been witnessing scores of devotees during the past three days after coming to know about their unique efforts.

The Yuva Kiranam Sports Association was set up in the late 1980s by a group of sports enthusiasts. The youth from the area competed in ball badminton, volleyball, shuttle and other sports competitions across the district under one umbrella. The same association had also started organising the Ganesh festivities.

However, last year, the association set a new trend by organising the festivities with a message. The founding members of the association were Gavvala Srinivas, Gavvala Sridhar, Lonka Narendar, Gundaboyina Satyanarayana, Bethi Prabhakar, Srinivas, and others.