VIJAYAWADA: The 10-day Dasara festivities at Sri Durga Malleswara Swamy Varla Devasthanam (SDMSD) started on a grand note on Sunday. The presiding deity was decorated in the Swarna Kavachalankrita Sri Kanaka Durga Devi avatar on the first day and was visited by pilgrims from various places.
According to the temple officials, about 70,000 devotees thronged the temple on the first day. The festivities began with suprabhata seva at 3 am, snapanabhishekam at 3.30 and balabhoga nivedana at 6.30 am.Minister for Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Marketing department Mopidevi Venkata Ramana, along with Vijayawada Central MLA Malladi Vishnu visited the temple. City commissioner of police (CP) Ch Dwaraka Tirumala Rao, along with One Town police paid visit to the deity and presented traditional silk robes (pattu vasthrams) to the goddess. Later, the CP and the minister interacted with devotees and expressed satisfaction over the arrangements.
While the queue lines moved fast during the initial hours of the day, it was a horrific experience for devotees in the afternoon hours as the rush increased. The officials created a double entrance, which resulted in confusion.
Though separate queue lines of Rs 300 and Rs 100 darshanam were created, devotees were forced to wait in queues for more than four hours. Some devotees engaged in verbal spat with temple officials on poor arrangement. The officials failed to provide drinking water in queues inside the temple. Pilgrims suffered stampede-like situation as Rs 300 queue line was merged with Rs 100 line in order to facilitate VIP devotees.
Due to lack of coordination, children, senior citizens, donors and physically challenged devotees faced inconvenience.
“Officials said there will be separate queue lines for donors. But when I came here, we were forced to stand in Rs 300 ticket line. If we, the donors, were asked to join paid ticket queue lines, then what is the point of having an extra line for us,” Kamakshi asked.
District collector Md Imtiaz told the media, “Though there were some minor disturbances reported, we tried our best to provide facilities. We have informed officials concerned to sort out the problems.”
Narrow escape
About 40 workers of Durga temple had a narrow escape on Sunday, as the gas pipeline developed leaks at the kitchen where pulihora prasadam was being prepared. After noticing the smell of gas, workers unplugged the main valve and informed temple officials, who performed the repair works soon. “If we didn’t notice the smell of gas, it could have led to a big mishap. Around 50 gas cylinders were near the kitchen,” a worker said
