Devotees bid adieu to valour tribal deities

Medaram (Jayashankar-Bhupalpally): The four-day biennial tribal deities Sammakka-Saralamma jatara has on Saturday evening culminated with the presiding deities returning to their abodes from the altars with the devotees bidding adieu amid drumbeats and frenzied atmosphere. The tribal priests took deities Sammakka to Chilakala Gutta, Saralamma to Kannepally, Pagididda Raju to Punugonda and Govindaraju to Kondai.

Speaking to the media persons here, the In-charge District Collector R V Karnan claimed that the jatara has been a huge success. He said that around 45 lakh devotees offered prayers at the altars on Friday and Saturday. In all, including pre-jatara rush, 1.25 crore pilgrims made their way to Medaram this year, he added.

Jatara Special Officer Prashanth Jeevan Patil said that with deities set to their abodes at around 6 pm, the jatara officially completed. It may be noted here that although the four-day jatara is concluded, the pilgrims continue to visit Medaram for few more days. 

Inspector General (IG) Y Nagi Reddy and Superintendent of Police (SP) R Bhaskaran said that with the cooperation of all the departments their personnel numbering around 10,000 were able to ensure the jatara peaceful.

Meanwhile, the Chief Secretary of Telangana Shylendra Kumar Joshi, other senior officials Ajay Misra, Benhur Mahesh Dutt Ekka, B Venkatesham and N Sivashankar offered prayers at the altars.