Vemulawada decked up for Maha Shivaratri jatara

Temple authorities and the district administration have made extensive arrangements for the jatara, allocating Rs. 2.03 crore, as over four lakh devotees from Telangana and neighboring states, including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Chhattisgarh, are expected to visit the shrine for Maha Shivaratri.

Rajanna Sircilla: The Sri Rajarajeshwara Swamy temple in Vemulawada is all decked up for the Maha Shivaratri jatara. The three-day annual fair will start on Tuesday and devotees have started arriving at the shrine to take part in their beloved god’s jatara.

Temple authorities and district administration made elaborate arrangements for the jatara spending Rs.2.03 crore since more than four lakh devotees are expected to visit the shrine from different parts of Telangana as well as adjacent States like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh on the occasion of Maha Shivaratri. Government whip and local MLA Adi Srinivas, Collector Sandeep Kumar Jha, Superintendent of Police Akhil Mahajan and temple EO Vinod Reddy are monitoring the arrangements.

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About 3200 staff have been deployed to look after arrangements and allocated zones to officials of different departments by dividing the temple town into different zones. The temple sanctum, ‘Maha mandapam’ and entry point of the shrine have been decorated with attractive flowers and lighting. Five lakh laddus have also been prepared for pilgrims.

TGSRTC authorities have decided to operate 778 buses to the temple town to transport devotees from different depots of Karimnagar, Adilabad, Warangal and Nizamabad regions from February 25 to 27. On the other hand, 14 mini buses will also be operated in between Thippapur (Vemulawada bus stand) to the shrine to transport devotees free of cost.

Besides decorating all allied shrines as well as the temple town with attractive lighting, pandals were arranged for the convenience of the devotees. Apart from filling the temple tank with freshwater, showers are also arranged for bathing. Special queue lines have also been arranged to have darshan of the presiding deity by the devotees.

Giving top priority for sanitation, Vemulawada municipal authorities have deployed 1200 sanitation workers to maintain the shrine premises always clean. Temporary toilets and bio-urinals are also established. Special arrangements made for women devotees. Besides separate bathing showers, changing rooms, baby feeding centres and other arrangements were also made.

Besides arranging special drinking water supply points, water tankers were also deployed to supply water. Medical camps are arranged in different places including temple tank, allied temples, bus stands and other areas. Besides a VIP parking place near the temple tank, normal parking places are also arranged in different areas of the town.

In order to conduct jatara in a peaceful manner, police deployed 2000 personnel and installed CCTV cameras in different places of the temple town to record every movement.

A huge dais and other arrangements are made at the temple tank parking place to organize Shivarchana cultural programmes. About 800 artists are going to perform. Authorities made arrangements to supply drinking water and butter milk to the devotees who stand in queue lines for darshan, officials said.