VIPs get priority at Medaram, devotees ill-treated
Tension prevailed at Medaram Sammakka Saralamma Jatara after devotees alleged police excesses, leading to injuries, protests and damage to a minister’s convoy. Long queues, power outage and VIP movement further worsened the situation, disrupting darshan and traffic.
Mulugu: Devotees attending Medaram Sammakka Saralamma Jatara have been complaining of excesses by police who are on bandobast duty.
Tension prevailed as armed reserve police and Greyhounds forces attacked devotees with batons. Police forces dragged devotees away from the main entrance of the Sammakka gaddelu and assaulted them with punches.
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Several devotees were seriously injured in the attack, while a female devotee suffered a bleeding injury on one of her hands. The devotees expressed anger and outrage over the police behaviour and some devotees, in a fit of rage, threw slippers at the police forces, while devotees staged a protest near the queue line entry point.
As the devotees were forced to wait for long hours outside the queue line, some of the devotees broke open iron sheets that were put up to cover the queue lines. A policeman on duty at the spot beat devotees, both men and women, with a stick, however the devotees barged into the queue lines.
Meanwhile, on Thursday night, devotees attacked Minister Adluri Lakshman’s convoy and damaged the windows of the vehicles. It was said that as Sammakka, Saralamma, Govindarajulu and Pagididdaraju reached their respective gaddelu, devotees thronged to offer their prayers.
At this time, Minister Lakshman remained in his car for over an hour amidst the crowded devotees near the Jampannavaagu, with his siren blaring. At the same time, a power outage occurred, causing the situation to spiral out of control.
The devotees questioned the rather outlandish behaviour of the minister and his followers, obstructed his car and forced him to walk out of the vehicle. It was alleged that the police personnel on duty at the gaddelu were giving priority to VIPs and their family members.
Many of the devotees were forced to offer prayers and vows at the main entrance to the gaddelu as they could not enter the queue lines. With a large number of devotees visiting Medaram on Friday, traffic on the Tadwai-Medaram stretch came to a standstill and vehicles were stranded for nearly three kilometres.
