Diwali celebrated for 2 consecutive days in Nellore district

Nellore: The Deepavali festival has been celebrated in a grand manner for two days across the district as Amavasya Thidi continued till Monday evening.

Following government announcing a holiday on Monday, people were seen purchasing crackers at the shops set up at VRC Grounds, Rebala Sundara Rami Reddy Municipal Boys’ High School and Batchu Venkata Subbaiah girls high schools etc areas in the city.

Streets in the city like Chinna Bazaar, Pedda Bazaar, Kamati Veedhi, Rayajee Veedhi, etc where Marwari community people live, witnessed bursting of the crackers on Monday as Deepavali is a most important festival for them.

Generally people in rural areas performed ‘Dhana Lakshmi Pooja’ popularly known as ‘Nomulu’ and offered pooja to Goddess Lakshmi Devi with rupee coins, variety of dishes and sweets on Amavasya Day indicated the closure of Deepavali but this year the rituals were conducted for two consecutive days. However, cracker traders complained that their sales were less compared to last year as the crackers were sold at shops which do not have licence.

Only 30 shops were established at VRC Grounds though permission was granted for 54 shops. While the shops made a business of Rs 5 crore last year, it has gone down to Rs 1 crore this year.