All arrangements made to meet devotees’ needs during Dasara

Vijayawadd: In view of the ensuing Dasara festivities at Durga Malleswara Swamy Varla Devasthanam atop Indrakeeladri here, the first coordination meeting was held at the NTR district Collector’s camp office here on Monday. The Dasara celebrations will be conducted from October 15 to 23.

Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Endowments Kottu Satyanarayana and NTR district in-charge and Minister for Home and Disaster Management Taneti Vanitha chaired the coordination meeting. Besides, the officials of endowments, revenue, police, water resources, R&B, municipal, electricity and other department officials attended this meeting.

Addressing the meeting, Ministers K Satyanarayana and Taneti Vanitha directed the officials concerned to coordinate with one another to make the festivities a grand success. No devotee should face any inconvenience during the nine-day celebrations, they said and asked the officials to make the arrangements for the devotees’ convenience accordingly. Referring to the landslides of Indrakeeladri hill, the Ministers said the temple authorities were taking necessary steps to prevent the falling of boulders from the hilltop. However, the officials concerned should be alert on falling boulders, they added. During the festivities, electricity department officials should provide adequate generators to overcome the power interruptions, they said.

Further, they directed all departments to make special arrangements for children, if they are missing during the festivities. Taking into consideration the previous experiences, officials should make elaborate arrangements for the convenience of the devotees, they explained.

Durga Temple Executive Officer D Bhramaramba said that they are expecting around 5.5 lakh devotees to visit the temple during the nine days of the celebrations. Every day about 50,000 devotees are likely to have Goddess Kanaka Durga darshan. On the day of Moola Nakshatram, around 1.50 lakh devotees may visit the temple, she said. Later, she explained about the ticket and prasadam counter details.

Vijayawada Mayor Rayana Bhagyalakshmi, MLAs Malladi Vishnu and V Srinivasa Rao, MLC Ruhulla, Durga Temple Trust Board Chairman Karnati Rambabu, NTR district Collector Dr S Dilli Rao, Police Commissioner Kanthi Rana Tata, Municipal Commissioner Swapnil Dinkar Pundkar and others participated.