Srisailam brims with pilgrims

SRISAILAM/RAJAHMUNDRY: More than three lakh devotees had darshan of Sri Bhramaramba Mallikarjuna Swamy in this temple town on the occasion of Mahasivaratri on Wednesday.
Chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, his wife N Bhuvaneswari, ministers D Sivarama Raju, K E Prabhakar, AP High Court Chief Justice Devinder Gupta were among the VIPs who visited the temple.
With tens of thousands of devotees complaining that VIPs who kept arriving one after the other well after Naidu left the temple were upsetting the darshan, the temple authorities decided to keep VIPs away till the evening.
Once the decision was taken, only the devotees waiting in the serpentine queues were allowed to have darshan of Lord Mallikarjuna, one among the Dwadasa (twelve) Jyotirlingas.
During normal days, devotees are allowed to touch the Siva Lingam at this hill shrine, a uniqueness of the temple, but as lakhs of devotees congregated on Wednesday, none was allowed to touch the deity.
"We can clear more number of devotees with this new system. If we allow them to touch the deity, it will take a lot of time,"Kurnool collector Ajay Jain told The Times of India. He said facilities like accommodation, drinking water, security at bathing ghats were provided.
However, the seriously depleted water level in the Srisailam reservoir meant that devotees had to climb down more than 600 steps for a dip at ''Patala Ganga'', a spot upstream of the reservoir.
Speaking to reporters after leaving the temple, the chief minister said that a Rs 4 crore special package was being implemented to develop the hill shrine as a tourism centre. Naidu said that Krishna Pushkaralu would be organised on a massive scale and the government will spend Rs 276 crore for them.
Temple executive officer C H Sridhar explained to Naidu about the progress of ongoing developmental activities. He said work on the ropeway to the temple from Patala Ganga would be completed by May.
Meanwhile, nearly four lakh pilgrims converged on this river side town on Wednesday to take a holy dip in the river Godavari on the occasion of Mahasivaratri festival.
According to preliminary estimates more than 4 lakh people took the holy dip at Kotilingala, Pushkar, TTD, Markandeya, Padmavathi, Sraddhananda and Gowthami ghats by the river. In the prime Kotilingala ghat alone about more than 2.5 lakh people took the holy bath, officials at the Rajahmundry Municipal Corporation said.
Wednesday''s festival was the first major event after the Godavari Pushkarams that drew pilgrims in lakhs to the town.
RMC commissioner TSR Anjaneyulu supervised the Maha Sivaratri arrangements.