HYDERABAD: Endowments Minister A Indrakaran Reddy along with State MPs will meet Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram on January 2 with a request to the Centre to declare Sammakka-Saralamma Jatara, the Asia’s biggest tribal festival held in the state every year, as a national festival. “The Central government is conducting Vanaj, tribal dance and music festival as a national festival. In the same manner, we will ask the Union Tribal Affairs Minister to declare Sammakka-Saralamma as a national festival,” TRS MP Sitaram Naik told Express on Saturday.
The biannual festival — Sammakka-Saralamma Jatara — is Asia’s biggest tribal festival, which will be conducted in Medaram. This time, the Jatara will start on January 31 and conclude on February 2. Meanwhile, at a review on the festival at secretariat here on Saturday Deputy Chief Minister K Srihari, Tribal Welfare Minister Azmeera Chandulal and Endowments Minister A Indrakaran Reddy directed the officials to make fool-proof arrangements for devotees. A special control room would be set up and the Jatara would be monitored through CCTV cameras. The RTC would ply 4,000 special busses from all parts of the state to Medaram. Srihari told reporters later that the State government allocated `80 crore for Medaram fest.
App launched
State government released a Route Map App — Medaram Guide — for the convenience of devotees. The route map would be useful to those who come to Medaram, Indrakaran Reddy said