Devotees demand executive officer at Vijaywada Kanakadurga

Vijayawada: With Dasara fast approaching, anxiety among the devotees is mounting over several works pending at the Kanakadurga temple, the second biggest temple in the state. The construction of Mallikarjuna mahamandapam is still incomplete, and so are other works aimed at the convenience of devotees.

Meanwhile, the endowment department has failed to appoint a regular executive officer for the temple. An incharge EO has been looking after the temple affairs since the past 10 months. In the absence of a regular EO, the development works are suffering as the temple authorities cannot take important decisions. The temple staff observe that an IAS cadre officer should be appointed the EO to curb irregularities.

The temple authorities have fail to get some shops vacated even after the expiry of the lease period. An official of the temple, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that the endowments commissionerate should be shifted to Vijayawada as there were plans to construct the commissioner’s office on temple land in Poranki. “This would set right the affairs of the temple, as the commissioner can directly supervise the goings on if the office was shifted to Vijayawada,” he said.

Meanwhile, work on the multi-storeyed Mallikharjuna mahamandapam, the modern queue complex on the lines of Tirumala Tirupati Devastanam, is pending. Once completed, it would be of immense help to devotees who wait for hours together for darshan during Dasara festival.

At present, devotees are forced to wait in the lengthy queues, starting from Vinayaka temple on canal road, braving both sun and rain. Several devotees observe that the officials can remove the shops atop the hill to provide more space for devotees.

The traffic police has arranged barricades near the entrance of ghat road and as a result the devotees are forced to take a U-turn at Kummaripalem Centre. Though it helps maintain traffic flow, it takes at least half-an-hour to take the U-turn due to the heavy traffic.