Water scarcity to hit roti fest

Nellore: Severe water shortage to hit the annual roti festival which is slated to be held from September 21. The five-day long festival requires clean water for bathing for devotees before offering rotis as part of the tradition. This time, the district is facing typical situation with no rains even during September.

Thanks to rains, the deficit rainfall reduced to 43.5 per cent from 54.5 per cent due to thunderstorms for couple of days. Still, there is no adequate water in Swarnala Cheruvu where the festival is schedule for celebration. The officials are now planning to obtain permission from the government for releasing water from Somasila Reservoir to Swarnala Cheruvu for managing the five-day festival.

Nellore district is facing severe shortage of rainfall after Kadapa district with 54.5 per cent deficit rainfall. Even though, the district has been witnessing thunderstorms for the last 7-10 days, the major was on Sunday which showered good rainfall in and around Nellore city. 

District Collector, who reviewed the situation on Monday, asked the officials to fill the tanks with water released from Somasila Reservoir for managing the festival without any difficulty to the devotees. All arrangements have been made for smooth conduct of the annual festival from September 21 to 25. Development works with Rs 70 lakh at Bara Shaheed Dargah have already been taken up.

Cement Concrete roads and footpaths have been laid and CCTV cameras were installed close to Dargah. Normally, devotees across the country visit the Dargah every year to offer and accept rotis as part of festival and the state government also declared as official festival from 2015 allocating necessary funds for organising it.

Devotees exchange rotis seeking fulfilment of their wishes like employment, marriage, career growth, health, wealth and political ambitions among others. Devotees, whose wishes were fulfilled, visit the Dargah again to offer rotis to other people, who need them as a matter of thanksgiving.

Another obstacle for the festival is protests of the sanitation workers which would turn devastating during five days as the garbage likely to be piled up at Dargah and Tank premises leading to communicable diseases. District Collector R Mutyala Raju directed officials concerned to fill the tank with water from Somasila Reservoir and also depute 54 teams from all divisions in the Corporation limits.