Thousands gulp down fish prasadam

Hyderabad: Thousands of people from different walks of life -- men and women and young and old --- from various parts of the country including the Telugu States on Thursday availed the now popular "fish prasadam" to get cured of asthma and other breathing disorders.

The "fish prasadam" being offered by the Bathina family members has now become an annual feature in the State capital and attained fame globally for curing asthma. The two-day "fish prasadam" distribution being organised at Exhibition Grounds at Nampally in city has this year drawn patients from several parts of the country like Rajasthan, West Bengal, Odisha, Karnataka and Maharashtra etc.

Special arrangements have been made at Exhibition Grounds under the aegis of the State government being supervised by Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav. As many as 1,000 police personnel have been deployed at the venue to avoid any untoward incident and also ensure orderly conduct in the enclosures. The sprawling venue has been fitted with CCTV cameras to keep track of the proceedings and also to keep a close watch on the huge gathering.

As many 65 counters have been opened where tokens are given for the patients to stand in queue and avail the prasadam. Since the medicine is given mainly using fish fingerlings, the Fisheries Department made arrangements for distributing as many as 2 lakh fish fingerlings. Besides this, some private fish stalls have also come up in the area for supplying the fish fingerlings.

Since two days, those wanting to avail the "fish prasadam" have been arriving in the State capital and were camping at the venue. Apart from those coming from various parts of the country, there were also some foreigners who desired to avail the prasadam after having come to know about this.

Among the thousands who had thronged the venue, many had been coming every year claiming that they were having much relief after taking the prasadam. Those who were averse to taking the medicine using fish fingerlings, were being administered the medicine using jaggery.

Special bus services were also made to enable to reach the venue from various parts of Telangana. Special services were also operated from the railway stations to help those arriving by trains to reach the venue. The "fish prasadam" will be distributed on Friday also.