WARANGAL: A spirit of religious fervour gripped lakhs of pilgrims, who descended on the ghats along the banks to river Godavari, after 12 years of long wait to take the holy dip in the river at the auspicious moment on Tuesday. Almost all Pushkaram ghats in Telangana witnessed heavy rush as pilgrims jostled to take the holy dip as Pushkarams dawned.
Barring an incident of drowning of an Intermediate student at Bhadracahalam, the first of the 12-day fete was incident-free in the State. Pilgrims from the neighbouring Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and AP too are arriving in large numbers at the ghats. While Bhadrachalam, the main Pushkar ghat in Telangana, witnessed a footfall of two lakh pilgrims, Dharmapuri and Kaleshwaram in Karimnagar district reported one lakh pilgrims each. Basar received nearly 75,000.
However, the turnout of pilgrims in Warangal district was low. It is said that only 20,000 have arrived at the three ghats in the district. “Nearly 15,000 pilgrims have taken the holy dip at Mangapet ghat till Tuesday evening. Since water is not available near Mullakatta and Ramannagudem ghats, many preferred Mangapet,” said Mangapet tahsildhar L Ashok.
Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao led the festivities at Dharmapuri taking the holy dip in the river at 6.21 am. Deputy CM Kadiyam Srihari took the holy bath at Ramannagudem in Warangal district. The Pushkarams got off to a grand start in Bhadrachalam with Sri Ramanuja Chinna Jeeyar Swamy of Seetangaram leading the devotees. Forest Minister Jogu Ramanna led the festival at Basara. Along with his family members, he took the holy dip and offered prayers to Goddess Saraswathi at the temple.
In a sad incident, an Intermediate student drowned in the river at Bhadrachalam while having the holy bath along with his family members near a bridge that was not declared as the ghat.
The victim has been identified as Pavan Kumar, a resident of Rudrampur in Kothagudem. At Kaleshwaram, many complained about the parking lot that was arranged 4 km away from the ghat. Endowments Minister Indrakaran Reddy said 50 lakh people will take the holy dip every day in the state.
