Works began last week, officials doubt completion of works on time
The bathing ghat on the shores of river Godavari near Kaleshwaram village is still under construction. (Photo: DC)
Hyderabad: Officials of endowments, irrigation and R&B departments in Telangana, who toured districts like Adilabad, Karimangar etc to inspect arrangements for the ensuing Godavari Pushkaralu in July, were shocked to find that even the VIP pushkar ghats remained incomplete let alone those to be used by common pilgrims.
While Pushkaralu is just 20 days away, the VIP pushkar ghats at Basara, Bhadrachalam, Dharmapuri and Kaleswaram are under various stages of construction where the President, the Prime Minister, the Chief Minister of Telangana and other states are expected to take a holy dip.
With rains, the works have been halted in these districts. Endowments officials, who toured the districts to assess the ground situation complained to the government about the negligence of the administration in these districts in completing the works before rains even after assigning the responsibilities to the committees headed by none other than district collectors and senior IAS officials three months ago.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who is keen on holding the first Pushkaralu in TS in a grand manner in Kumbh Mela style, has been repeatedly asking the endowments minister A. Indrakaran Reddy and officials to complete all the works by June 30.
However, going by the present pace, it will be difficult to complete all the works even by July 14, when the 12-day Pushkarlu commences, unless the officials take up the works on a war-footing. The principal secretaries of roads and buildings, endowments and irrigation — Sunil Sharma, Shiva Shankar and S.K. Joshi — visited Dharmapuri and Basar, where VIPs are scheduled to visit.
Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan and CM, K. Chandrasekhar Rao are coming to Dharmapuri in Karimnagar to take a holy dip. But the works to set up the VIP ghat there were started only last week, which too have been halted now due to rains.
Officials said that it was not possible to complete this ghat in time and selected another ghat near Mahalaxmi temple in Dharmasagar. But the roads leading to the ghat are narrow and would pose traffic problem for VIPs. With this, the officials remained undecided on which ghat to opt for VIPs.
Officials who inspected works at Basar expressed dissatisfaction over the pace of works before Adilabad collector Jagan Mohan and asked him to work day and night to complete the works.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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