VIPs' arrival invites devotees' wrath

Medaram (Mulugu): It was a long and frustrating day for the devotees, who had to wait hours together in queue to have the darshan of the tribal deities – Sammakka and Saralamma. Normally, devotees in large numbers turn to Medaram on Fridays, the third day of the jatara, which is seen as the most auspicious with tribal deities inducted on to their altars, gaddelu in local parlance.

The devotees' ordeals started with the arrival of Telangana and Himachal Pradesh Governors Tamilisai Soundararajan and Bandaru Dattatreya continued till late in the afternoon with authorities stopping the queue time and again.

The devotees' darshan came to a grinding halt with the administration stopping the queue for the visit of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao. Although, the CM was at the altars for about half an hour, it took some more time for the administration to clear the devotees from the sanctum sanctorum.

The authorities have to stop the queue to facilitate several VIPs, legislators and other people's representatives to have the darshan of the tribal deities. As if this was not enough, the authorities have to allow the entourage of all those VIPs and people's representatives.

At times, the followers of the leaders entered the temple setting aside the protocol, it's learnt. All this was at the cost of devotees waiting in the queue enduring health problems.

"Elders and children were worst hit as they had to stay long hours in the queue. On the other hand, even the fit devotees especially women also have to face problems as they have to stand in queue carrying large lumps of jaggery to be offered to the deities," P Hanmi Reddy told The Hans India. The staff deployed at the entrance gates were also seen sending their near and dear to the altars skipping the queue.

The police had a tough time handling the crowd. At one point of time, the devotees had to jostle with each other with the queue continued to swell. Some of them received minor injuries when a barricade caved in.

Outside the temple, it became tough for the devotees even to move through the street due to the parked convoys of the VIPs and vehicles of the leaders. The movement of ambulances have also got affected.