Andhra Pradesh - Others   

Silk vastrams presented to deities

Special Correspondent

SRISAILAM: The State Government presented traditional silk fabrics to the presiding deities at Srisailam on Thursday as prelude to Mahasivaratri celebrations.

Principal Secretary of Endowments Department I.V. Subba Rao formally delivered the vastrams around 6 p.m. Devastanam Chairman P. Srinivasulu Setty and Executive Officer Harijawaharlal accompanied Mr. Subba Rao.

Around two lakh pilgrims were estimated to have had darshan on the eve of Sivaratri. The devotees could complete darshan in three hours. Three separate queues were formed for general devotees, `deeksha' (safforn) devotees and pay darshan.

10,000 kg flowers

The temple authorities stopped `sparsa darshan' (by touching Shivalinga) two days ago to avoid stampede. `Jyothirlinga' has been decorated with the gold mask presented by a devotee recently.

The authorities sourced 10,000 kg flowers this year by roping in flower merchants at Rajahmundry, Bangalore and Hyderabad. On Sivaratri day alone, around 3,000 flowers would be used.

The district administration made elaborate arrangements to avoid any untoward incident.

Collector M. Dana Kishore and B. Malla Reddy, SP, camped at Srisailam and monitored the arrangements.

Keeping in view the last year's water shortage, the administration enhanced the capacity by 25 per cent to 12.5 lakh gallons.

Collector said movement of vehicles was made easy by enforcing one-way in the temple town. The Devastanam planned to sell 14 lakh laddus during the festival. So far, eight lakh laddus were prepared and no restriction was imposed on the quantity so far.

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