Thousands Throng Annavaram Temple for Satyanarayana Pooja
3 lakhs devotees attend Giri Pradakshina
Kakinada: On the auspicious day of Karthika Pournami, thousands of devotees thronged the Sri Veera Venkata Satyanarayana Murthy Temple at Annavaram in Kakinada district to perform Satyanarayana Vratam poojas.
There are four Vratha Kalyana Mandapams, with tickets of ₹300, ₹1,000, ₹1500 and ₹2,000. While there are enough mandapams for three types of Vrathams, there is only one Vrata Mandapam for ₹1,500 in front of the Yantralayam.
Generally, devotees are allowed to perform the ₹1,500 Vratham within the precincts of the temple. But in view of the rush, temple officials made an attempt to set a temporary Vrata Mandapam under a tent under a slab attached to the temple. But the attempt backfired after devotees objected to it.
According to officials, nearly 9,720 devotees had performed their vratam poojas by 4 p.m. on Wednesday.
On the day, nearly three lakh devotees performed the Giri Pradikshana. Officials attribute the high attendance to women devotees having access to free RTC bus travel.
In view of Kasibugga and other temple tragedies, Kakinada district superintendent of police G. Bindu Madhav closely monitored the crowd and visited the premises twice on Wednesday. Police used drones to assess the crowds.
Endowments department deployed three deputy commissioners – Ramesh Babu of Kakinada, Chakradhara Rao of Vadapalli and Viswanatha Raju of Tuni, apart from regional joint commissioner V. Trinadha Rao to supervise the Giri Pradakshina.
