Lack of toilets at Durga temple irks pilgrims

Vijayawada: Pilgrims flocking to Indrakeeladri temple are not happy as they are facing problems without ample facilities like luggage counters, lockers etc, especially without toilets. Even though three days have passed since the festival began, the authorities have failed to make proper arrangements to meet devotees' needs.

On the other hand, the number of devotees visiting Durga temple has been increasing with each day day. Thousands of pilgrims from various districts of the State and neighbouring States are coming to Vijayawada to have Goddess darshan.

The district administration and temple authorities set up three types of queue lines for devotees from Vinayaka Temple near VMC. These queue lines take the devotees up to the hill shrine atop Indrakeeladri. The queue line length from starting to ending is approximately 2 km and it will take at least one to two hours to have Goddess darshan during normal days like the first two to three days of the celebrations. After that it takes about three to five hours as devotees' movement increases.

The problem here is that there are no toilet facilities in these queue lines. The authorities haven't set up at least makeshift toilets near queue lines for the convenience of devotees. This means, a devotee, who enters the queue line, has to wait till he completes darshan to go to toilet.

There is toilet facility near Sri Malleswara Swamy temple only atop Indrakeeladri. The agony of the devotees with children is indescribable.

A devotee R Rajeswari from Vizianagaram said that they didn't find any toilet facilities in or around the queue lines. Stating that she had to go to makeshift toilets near Seethamma Vari Padalu for washing, Rajeswari requested the authorities to arrange makeshift toilet facilities to devotees at least near Vijayeswara temple or near Ratham Centre where the queue line passes.

Another devotee from Guntur expressed his unhappiness over the arrangements and said that he enquired for the lockers and luggage counters but there was no proper information. He appealed to the authorities to convey information about the facilities to devotees. Meanwhile, the authorities said that they have arranged about 150 makeshift toilets to suit the devotees' primary needs.