Giri Pradakshina: Auto drivers fleece devotees as they wrap up their trek

Visakhapatnam: inclement weather conditions, people came in droves for ‘Giri Pradakshina’ celebrated with religious fervour in Visakhapatnam.

Compared to the earlier editions, this time, the crowd swelled even further. The young and old came together to embark on the longest circumambulation that stretched for 32-km by breaking a coconut at Tholipavancha in Simhachalam.

As participation for the festival increased as the day progressed, many found it tough to reach home as they completed the circumambulation arriving at the same point where they began their ‘pradakshina’ from.

Even as RTC buses were seen plying in full capacities, it was a ‘real’ festival for the Visakhapatnam auto-rickshaw drivers. They demanded anywhere between Rs 600 and Rs 700 to ferry each passenger from Simhachalam to different areas in the city, depending on the location the passengers asked to get them dropped to.

After completing the Giri Pradakshina on Sunday, R Lakshmi, a devotee from Akkayyapalem, was too exhausted to walk any further from the Tholipavancha where she began her 32-km-long trek on Saturday noon. She was shocked when the driver demanded Rs 600 to get her dropped to the city. “All I have to do is to cover some more distance walking so that I can get an auto service to reach home for Rs 200,” she mentions after wrapping up her ‘Pradakshina’.

Traffic bottlenecks were witnessed in a number of neighbourhoods where Giri Pradakshina route passed through. Many commuters took diverted routes inside the colonies to reach their destination.

Although the weather was favourable for most of Saturday, it started raining in the wee hours of Sunday. Those who had completed their circumambulation by then were back home a little early. But devotees who began trekking a while later on Saturday had to face inconvenience due to rains.

However, the stretches of Giri Pradakshina route were cleared by Sunday morning as a team of GVMC sanitation staff started working from the early hours of the day.

Officials of district administration, police, GVMC, endowments, medical and health departments worked in tandem not just to make the annual festival a grand success but also hassle-free.