Ugadi celebrated with pomp

Rajamahendravaram: Vilambi Nama Ugadi festival was celebrated with gaiety and pomp in Sri Venkateswara Anam Kala Kendrem under the aegis of Rajamahendravaram Municipal Corporation (RMC) here on Sunday. The RMC conducted the festival for the first time on a massive scale in which all corporation staff attended with traditional dress of white lungi, shirt and scarf, including the corporation Commissioner and Sub-Collector.

The programme was commenced with Nadaswaram and veda swasthi by vedic scholars followed by Panchanga Patanam by Pullela Satyanarayana, which was continued for one hour. Later, traditional dress programme to the children as well as to the teenagers and skits impressed the audience.  Aastanam to Lord Venkateswara Swamy was also conducted in the auditorium and teerdham, satari and prasadam offered to the participants.

Various varieties of traditional eateries such as Pootarekulu, Kakinada Kaja, Tapeswaram Kaja, Gangaraju Kova, Marvadi Halwa etc attracted the people in Subramanya Mydanam. The entire area was crowded with the people. At about 80 petty stalls were arranged like in jatara on the footpath from Pushkar Ghat to Three-Town police station. As part of the festival, the RMC arranged various breeds of cows such as Ongole, Punganur, Kapila, Murra and Zabra breed he buffaloes and horses.

Mayor Panthan Rajani Sesiha Sai, Rural MLA Gorantla Buchaiah Choudary, MLC Adireddy Appa Rao, corporation Commissioner V Vijayarama Raju, Sub-Collector CM Saikanth Varma and many inaugurated the festival by lighting the lamp. Earlier, on Saturday night RMC arranged kavi sammelanam and honoured the poets.  Janakinadh, VSS Krishna Kumar, corporation additional commissioner NSS Satyanarayana and manager K Srinivas supervised the programmes.