Visakhapatnam: Long wait and delayed darshan trouble devotees

Visakhapatnam: The statements made by the authorities concerned that water and ORS supply to the devotees at queue lines and in accordance with top priority given to common devotees went for a toss at the annual 'Chandanotsavam' that began in the wee hours of Sunday at Simhachalam Devasthanam.

As scores of devotees turned up in droves from early hours of the day to avail the 'nijaroopa darshan', they eventually ended up waiting for hours in the queue. Unfortunately, those who were standing in the long queues to get their turn faced difficulties as they could not gain access to a glass of water.

In some queue lines, unable to bear the officials' apathy, raised slogans stating 'CM down, down', 'EO down, down'.

This time, the queue lines became much longer. With festival duty officers becoming busy to serve the VIPs and VVIPs, the waiting got much longer for the common devotees at the shrine. Brushing the endowments and revenue officials aside, the Police department took charge of the festival organisation. Following which, even some of the IAS officers, MPs and MLAs ended up waiting to view 'nijaroopa darshan'.

Protocol darshan tickets were issued more than the quantity announced and those who availed them were facilitated 'antralaya' darshan. Apparently, this delayed the darshan for the common devotees.

Keeping the earlier experiences in view, the temple officials tried to avoid 'pradakshinam' at sanctum sanctorum. However, the district officials did not pay heed to their pleas. It is one of the main reasons why the festival failed this year. Realising it later, the officials stopped darshan at sanctum sanctorum after a few hours.

However, it could not ease the challenges faced by the devotees. Owing to lack of traffic streamlining, traffic bottlenecks were witnessed along the ghat road and movement of vehicles came to a halt for hours. Irked by this, many devotees deboarded the buses and trekked uphill for the darshan. The only solace for the day the common devotees count was the weather as it was comparatively merciful on Sunday. Earlier, the temple trust board chairman P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju along with his family had the first darshan of the 'nijaroopa' as per the temple tradition. Meanwhile, Endowments Minister Kottu Satyanarayana reasoned that since the devotees failed to follow time slots provided to them, the festival organisation was impacted.