RAJANNA-SIRCILLA: While many parts of the state are reeling under excessive rainfalls, some parts like Vemulawada continue to live under water scarcity. In what can only be explained as overenthusiasm and incompetence of authorities, the town’s Sri Raja Rajeshwara Swamy temple is facing an acute shortage of water.
The Dharma Gundam (sacred lake) in the temple does not have any water, and devotees at the temple are now forced to take their holy dips in water filled in from tankers. The tank, if filled at all in the first place, mostly has dirty and contaminated water. Devotees have thronged to the temple for decades, but this is the first time something of this sort has happened.
It is reported that the nearby Gudi Cheruvu(temple lake), which used to supply water to the Dharma Gundam, is now filled up with gravel and is not a lake anymore - among other things, it now is a temporary parking lot. The State government had recently decided to develop the temple as a religious tourism hub.
To this effect, the authorities decided to expand the temple complex by filling up the aforementioned lake which spread across 25 acres. To solve the self created water supply issue, they had planned to create an artificial lake, however this has not happened yet. The death of the lake seems to have affected the ground water table as well, as citizens of the town say that are unable to get ground water, despite digging bore wells well above 1000 feet. Officials remain tight lipped about the makeshift arrangements.