Pushkaralu festival: Andhra Pradesh devotees too flock to Telangana ghats

KARIMNAGAR: Devotees from AP are preferring to take a holy dip at Basar during the Godavari Pushkaralu while people from Telangana are avoiding it. Nearly 60 per cent devotees here are from AP and they say they consider Basar more important due to the connection with Goddess Saraswati.

The AP devotees are from Vijayanagar, Srikakulam, Anantapur, Kurnool, Nellore and other districts and also Andhra people who settled in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy and Medak.

Devotees from Karimnagar and Warangal districts, meanwhile, prefer to go to Dharmapuri, Kaleshwaram, Kotilingala and Bhadrachalam in Khammam. People from Adilabad are going to Soan, Gudem, Mancherial, Chennur and Velala Pushkar ghats where fresh water from projects is flowing in Godavari instead of Basar where water is muddy.

In fact devotees from nearby areas like Lokeshwaram, Mudhole and Bhainsa mandals are also avoiding Basar and are instead going to Asta, Brahmeshwar and Savergoan Pushkara ghats where there is fresh water. Mudhole MLA G. Vittal Reddy said that they had expected 2 lakh devotees on the first day of the Pushkaralu at Basar but only 60,000 had turned up.

However, district authorities are expecting a big rush at Basar on Friday and over the weekend. Meanwhile many Andhra devotees have also been preferring Karimnagar during the last two days for their holy dips following the stampede at Rajahmundry.

Mr S. Gopichand and Ms P. Rajyalaxmi of Satthenapalle from Guntur district said that they, along with 27 family members and relatives, had taken a holy dip in Godavari at Dharmapuri and Kaleshwaram on Thursday. “Usually, we go to Rajahmundry, but this time we decided to come to Telangana due to the stampede.”

Andhra devotees also expressed their satisfaction with the arrangements and facilities at the bathing ghats and temples in Telangana.