The extended biennial Medaram jatara has brought about a windfall for the Warangal endowments department and Karimnagar zone of the APSRTC, which took the maximum brunt during the last year’s successful Sakala Janula Samme.
The endowments department, Warangal, which had put up 275 hundis (large yellow painted boxes) during the Medaram jatara, has already winded up counting of 115 hundis, realising Rs.1.38 crores on Tuesday.
The counting of the contents of these hundis is presently on a TTD mandapam near Hanamkonda public garden, which is expected to continue for three more days.
According to Medaram temple executive officer (EO) D. Rajeshwar, during the pre-jatara days itself, pilgrims had filled up 29 hundis with their donation. “Our last season’s collection in 2010-Medaram was Rs.3.16 crore and we are expecting more this time after all hundis are accounted for,” he told this newspaper.
Similarly, the Sammakka-Saralamma festival at Agrampahad in Atmakur mandal, counting for which concluded at Venkateshwara temple in Battala Bazar in Warangal on Tuesday, has added a sum of Rs.25.33 lakh to the endowments department despite the fact that it is technically an ‘unrecognised Medaram jatara’, according to Koya tribal leaders.
The Agrampahad temple EO, P. Sekhar Babu, announced their collection after concluding the counting on Tuesday.
However, the largest collection has been to the Karimnagar zone of APSRTC (comprising Warangal, Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Adilabad and Khammam), which collected a whopping Rs.16.20 crores by operating a fleet of 3,159 buses during the jatara season.
According to A. Puroshottam, executive director, APSRTC Karimnagar zone, the transport department earned Rs.8 crores from Warangal, Rs.1.62 in Adilabad, Rs.3.25 from Karimnagar, Rs.2.25 from Khammam and Rs.1.25 from Nizamabad.
“As against Rs.7.60 during Medaram-2010, this was more than double this year,” said Mr Puroshottam.
Meanwhile, the ITDA Eturunagaram project officer Mr B.S.V.V.S. Murthy, is receiving accolades for his supervisory role in the installation of battery of taps on ghats with an amount of ` 5.88 crore through Special Minor Irrigation division of Tribal Welfare in a record 45 days for Medaram-2012.
Besides this, Mr Murthy also oversaw speedy construction of construction of rest rooms at English medium ashram high school at Medaram in a record 37 days for providing accommodation to the staff and officers drafted for duties and for the stay of VIPs.
