Vemulawada Temple decks up for Mahashivaratri fest

Rajanna-Sircilla: Sri Rajarajeshwara Swamy temple in Vemulawada is decked up for Mahashivaratri Jatara. The three-day annual fair starts on Friday and devotees have started arriving at the shrine to take part in their beloved god's jatara.

Elaborate arrangements have been made for jatara by spending Rs 3.30 crore since about three to four lakh devotees are expected to visit the shrine from different parts of Telangana as well as adjacent states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh on the occasion of maha shivaratri.

Collector Anurag Jayanthi and Superintendent of Police Akhil Mahajan, who had conducted meetings with officials to review arrangements, have allocated zones to officials of different departments by dividing the temple town into different zones.

TSRTC authorities have decided to operate 850 buses in different routes to transport devotees from different parts of the state. On the other hand, 14 mini buses are also being operated from Thuppapur (Vemulawada bus stand) to the main shrine to transport pilgrims free of cost.

Besides decorating all allied shrines as well as temple town with attractive lighting, pandals were arranged for the convenience of the devotees. Besides filling the temple tank with fresh water, showers are also arranged. Special queue lines have also been arranged to have darshan of the presiding deity by the devotees.

Giving top priority for sanitation, temple and Vemulwada municipal authorities have deployed their staff in a big way to maintain the shrine always clean. Temporary toilets and bio-urinals are also established.

Medical camps are arranged in different places including temple tank, allied temples, bus stand and other areas. A VIP parking place at the temple tank area and normal parking places are also arranged in different areas of the town.

1,200 police personnel of different cadres have been deployed to conduct jatara in a peaceful manner by maintaining law and order. CCTV cameras have also been installed across the temple town.

A huge dais and other arrangements are made at the temple tank parking place to organize Shivarchana cultural programmes.

Temple executive officer Krishna Prasad said that they made all arrangements for the convenience of devotees. Drinking water and butter milk would be supplied to the devotees who stand in queue lines, he said.