VIJAYAWADA: The environs of Indrakeeladri acquired red hue as Bhavani devotees from various parts of the State continued to throng the hill shrine on Saturday even after conclusion of the nine-day Dasara festivities on October 18.
After taking a holy dip in the River Krishna at Durga Ghat, the devotees with Bhavani mala thronged the shrine in large numbers.Their influx was high even from the early hours of the day as a 3km queue stretched till the Kaleswara Rao market.
Due to the heavy rush, it took many who had opted for the free darshan four hours to reach the shrine. There was even a point when the temple authorities decided not to allow the devotees into the ‘antralayam’ to ensure a hassle-free atmosphere near the sanctum sanctorum.
The authorities, who failed to anticipate the unprecedented rush, even faced severe criticism for ‘poor arrangements’ in supplying laddu prasadam. Several devotees waited for more than three hours to buy the prasadam at Kanaka Durga Nagar, where the temple authorities had opened ten counters for its sale.
However, only four laddus per person were distributed even after their long wait.
According to temple officials, the devasthanam had decided to prepare 23.22 lakh laddus per day to supply as prasadam during the nine-day Dasara festivities at the hill shrine. As many as 2.50 lakh laddus were
prepared per day and supplied as per the devotees’ requirement.
However, with the shrine seeing heavy footfalls of devotees on Saturday, demand of laddus increased to 2.80 lakh per day. As such, shortage of Laddu Prasadam was witnessed on Saturday and efforts to supply sufficient laddus on Sunday were underway, officials concerned said.
