Heavy rush continues at Durga temple for 2nd day

Vijayawada: Heavy rush of devotees continued at Kanaka Durga temple atop Indrakeeladri on Thursday, the eighth day of Dasara celebrations. The presiding deity was adorned as Sri Durga Devi and a large number of devotees visited the temple for the darshan. For the second consecutive day, heavy rush continued on Indrakeeladri. On Wednesday, more than 1.5 lakh devotees had a darshan on Mula Nakshatram day. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu presented silk robes to the Goddess and people stood in queue lines till night.

On Thursday too, a large number of devotees visited the temple. The district administration arranged five queue lines for the hassle-free darshan and two queue lines are free lines while the rest are ticket queue lines. Bhavanis also started visiting the temple. Consequently, the rush was visible till evening. Wearing traditional red dress, the devotees visited the temple.

Union minister of state for steel B Srinivasa Varma visited the Durga temple and offered special prayers. Interacting with the media, he said the NDA government has made elaborate arrangements for the Dasara celebrations and common devotees are also having darshan comfortably.

Vijayawada West MLA and BJP leader Sujana Chowdary presented the Pattu Vastralu to the Goddess on Thursday. He told the media that he was elected from West constituency due to the blessings of the Goddess. He said the government departments are working in co-ordination for the successful conduct of Dasara celebrations and hoped next year also the celebrations will be conducted in a grand fashion. APSRTC chairman Konakalla Narayana and senior officers of government departments visited the temple.

On the other hand, 4,183 tickets of Rs 500, 1,773 tickets of Rs 300 and 3,310 tickets of Rs100 were sold on Thursday. The temple administration earned a revenue of Rs 30 lakh on sale of laddu prasadam, which include single laddus each costing Rs15 and a packet of six laddus for Rs 100. The Rs100 pack evoked good response from the devotees.

The temple administration has served meals to thousands of devotees. Due to cool weather the devotees had a comfortable darshan on Thursday. One or two showers caused inconvenience to the devotees. By and large the devotees had a comfortable darshan on the eighth day. On the ninth day Friday, the deity will be decorated as Sri Mahishasura Mardini Devi Alankaram.