VIJAYAWADA: More than two lakh devotees thronged the Kanka Durga temple on the auspicious Moola Nakshatram day atop Indrakeeladri hill on the fifth day of the ongoing Dasara celebrations at Sri Durga Malleswara Swamy Varla Devasthanam. The rush of devotees was all the more as the day coincided with a Sunday.
The devotees turnout crossed two lakh by Sunday evening. It is likely to touch 2.5 lakh by night, officials said. In view of the heavy rush, additional police forces were deployed at important places to manage the devotees visiting the city.
Additional police forces were also deployed along the queues to regulate the movement of devotees. In addition, the temple authorities also cancelled all special darshan tickets of `300 and `500 apart from the antaralaya darshan.
To ensure hassle-free darshan, the temple authorities decided to allow devotees until 12 am and even cancelled the `100 ‘Mukha Mandapam’ darshan. After taking a holy dip in the Krishna river, the pilgrims entered the queue line at Vinayaka temple on the Canal Road.
Chaos prevailed for a while on early hours of Sunday near the queue lines on Canal Road as there were no temple officials to either guide or manage the crowd. Many pilgrims expressed dissatisfaction with the poor arrangements. As the crowd swelled up from Saturday, the officials turned all queues into general darshan lines and the devotees waited for hours together in serpentine queues for darshan.
Elderly people faced a tough time in the queue lines erected between Canal Road and Indrakeeladri hill. With the police imposing certain traffic restrictions, the temple authorities suspended operation of special vehicles for transporting the aged, physically challenged, media persons to the temple in view of the heavy rush.
“Tension prevailed for a while on early Sunday when the police restricted the family members of Temple trust board panel chief Y Gouranga Babu from having darshan. With no option left, Babu waited for more than half-an-hour before Mukha Mandapam and complained to the top cop Ch Dwaraka Tirumala Rao,” an official said. Later, he convened a special trust board panel meet to discuss about the police’s indifferent attitude. The police commissioner assured Babu of taking action against the ‘guilty’ police official.