Poor facilities irk devotees at Vemulawada temple

SIRCILLA: Pilgrims visiting Sri Raja Rajeshwara Swamy shrine in Vemulawada of Rajanna-Sircilla district were forced to face serious problems following the huge rush on the occasion of the Karthika Masam on Monday. It is expected that the devotees rush would swell on Monday at the temple shrine, but the authorities had failed to take up proper crowd management. The pilgrims were forced to strand in the queue lines for more than three to four hours for darshan of the presiding deities in spite of 'laghu' darshan and cancellation of all special puja rituals due to heavy rush.

Frustrated for remaining in queue lines for hours together, the devotees had reportedly manhandled a priest B Raju for the slow movement of queue line. The devotees had faced problems in fetching drinking water in the queue lines as the temple authorities had not made any arrangements. The non-availability of accommodation to the pilgrims had also become a cause of concern forcing the devotees to occupy all the open places in the temple town.

Thanks to the non-availability of regular temple executive officer, the administration is going for a toss at the Vemulawada temple shrine. Deputy Commissioner (endowments) Hyderabad, Krishna Prasad was posted as incharge EO at Vemulawada. On Monday, the temple EO was camping at his main office in Hyderabad forcing the local authorities to remain mute spectators and did not take any measures for the proper crowd management and causing chaos with poor sanitation.

With the ensuing Samakka-Sarakka jatara in Medaram in Mulugu district from February 16 to 19, the devotees rush would further increase at Vemulawada temple shrine. It is a belief among the devotees going on a pilgrimage to Medaram jatara to pay a visit to the Vemulawada temple shrine to seek the blessings of presiding deities.

It is time for the endowment department authorities to post a regular EO to the temple to meet the growing challenges with the arrival of hordes of devotees to the temple shrine on the eve of Samakka-Sarakka jatara as well as ensuing Maha Shivarathri jatara at Vemulawada.