State govt to hold Sammakka Sarakka jatara on a grand scale
Telangana govt allocates Rs 150 crore for this year’s Sammakka Sarakka jatara, with a master plan prepared by Kumbh Mela planners
Hyderabad: Endowments Minister Konda Surekha on Wednesday said that the government would organise the SammakkaSarakkajatara on a grand scale this time compared to the previous occasion.
The Endowments Minister, along with Panchayat Raj Minister DhanasriAnasuya (Seethakka) and Minority Affairs Minister Adluri Lakshman, reviewed the Medaram master plan prepared by the planners of Kumbh Mela in Uttar Pradesh. The ministers said that the fame of the Sammakka-Sarakka forest deities, a symbol of Telangana’s self-respect, should spread across the world. The officials explained to the ministers that the responsibility of managing the master plan has been entrusted to the organisation that has organised Kumbh Melas many times. The ministers examined the new design of the Medaram temple premises as per the suggestions of the SammakkaSaralamma priests. The ministers made suggestions on the changes to be made in the designs and ordered that steps should be taken to complete the Medaram maintenance work in a timely manner. They suggested that the work to be completed before the Maha Medaram Jatara should be taken up quickly. It was decided to carry out modernisation works as per their opinion after discussing with the SammakkaSaralamma priests.
The priests brought to the notice of the government that the height of the shrines of the goddess should be increased and the designs should be changed accordingly. They said that more arrangements need to be made, keeping in mind the experiences of past jataras. They said that volunteers should be appointed to help the devotees during the fair for the service of SammakkaSaralamma. They said that there was a need to develop the surroundings of Medaram in accordance with the traditional culture of the tribals.
The ministers said that for this year’s ‘Maha Medaram Jatara’, the government has allocated Rs 150 crore, which was never done in the history of Medaram. The master plan was prepared with a total of Rs 236.2 crore, with allocations for several items including Rs 58.2 crore for the development of the pedestal, Rs 6.8 crore for the art work at the pedestal, Rs 39 crore for the development of JampannaVagu, Rs 50 crore for the accommodation of devotees, and the remaining Rs 52.5 crore for other expenses.
