Dasara: Officials asked to take steps for smooth darshan

With the Dasara Sarannavaratri festivities set to take place from October 3 to 12 at the Sri Durga Malleswara Swamy Varla Devasthanam, the first coordination meeting has been held to ensure smooth conduct of the celebrations. The meeting was held at the Pingali Venkaiah Meeting Hall on the premises of the NTR district collectorate in Vijayawada on Wednesday.
The meeting directed the officials to make extensive arrangements to facilitate a satisfying and comfortable darshan of goddess Durga Devi for the devotees. The meeting focused on key aspects such as crowd management, security, sanitation, and seamless services for pilgrims. The meeting was attended by NTR District Collector Dr G Srijana, Police Commissioner SV Rajasekhar Babu, Vijayawada West MLA Yalamanchili Satyanarayana Chowdary alias Sujana Chowdary and Kanaka Durga Temple Executive Officer (EO) KS Rama Rao. The meeting focused on key issues such as hassle-free darshan, security, drinking water, food, and other amenities for the devotees.
The authorities expected that around 15 lakh devotees from across the State, besides other States would visit the temple during the festivities. Approximately, one lakh devotees will visit the temple every day. However, on the auspicious day of Moolanakshatram on October 9, around two to three lakh devotees will have darshan. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu also will offer silk robes to Durga Devi.
During the meeting, Collector Srijana said that the temple authorities have intensified the arrangements for the upcoming Dasara festivities. Keeping the past experiences, the district administration is taking all necessary steps to provide darshan to all devotees. She asked all departmental officials and staff to work together to succeed in the festivities. With the support from donors, drinking water, milk, breakfast and others should be provided to all devotees, she said.
Police Commissioner SV Rajasekhar Babu said that his department is taking the required steps to regulate traffic in and out of Vijayawada city. As many as 3,500 police personnel were drafted for the festivities for security and traffic regulations purposes, he said. A Command Control Room will be established on the premises of the Model Guest House to monitor the arrangements, crowd of festivities maintenance. A special officer will be deployed to each sector to complete arrangements before the commencement of the Dasara festivities, he said.
MLA Sujana Chowdary said that this year, Dasara Sarannavaratri festivities should be conducted better than the previous years. The Endowment Department and the Durga Temple authorities will design a website to receive suggestions from the devotees. Also, to avoid inconveniences to the devotees at the time of VIPs’ darshan, special timeslot should be ensured to VIPs, VVIPs, senior citizens, and differently-abled people, he suggested.
EO KS Rama Rao explained the arrangements to the officials. Also, he disclosed the daily Avatarams and the temple services to the devotees. Online ticket counters are set up at the Reception, Toll-gate, Om Turning, Punnami Ghat, VMC Office, Collectorate, State Guest House, Model Guest House, Head Water Works, bus stand and railway station, he said. Starting from the Vinayaka temple, three queue lines are arranged and from the Om Turning, the queue lines increase to five. This year, in addition to water packets, bottles will be supplied to the devotees on the queue lines, he said.
DCPs Gowthamii Sali, M Krishnamurthy Naidu, Additional DCPs G Ramakrishna, M Raja Rao, DRO V Srinivasa Rao, Vijayawada RDO Bh Bhavani Sankar, and others were present.