Vijaywada: It's a sea of people at beaches for holy dip

VIJAYAWADA: People in large numbers thronged beaches in Krishna and Guntur districts to take a holy dip on the occasion of the auspicious Karthika Pournami on Friday. 

Manginapudi beach at Machlipatnam in Krishna district and Suryalanka beach near Bapatla in Guntur district were filled with people who had come from far and near for the holy dip. 

Ratna Garbha Sagara Harati was offered to the sea god at Suryalanka by MLC Annam Satish Prabhakar. MLA G. Srinivas Reddy, along with his supporters conducted Giri Pradakshina to the Trikoteswara temple at Narasaraopeta.

Assembly Speaker K. Sivaprasad Rao conducted special Puja at Trikoteswara Swamy temple on Kotappakonda hilltop.

Minister for sports and youth development K. Ravindra inaugurated the holy dip of Karthika Pournami at Manginapudi beach with special pujas. 

The APSRTC had pressed special buses to Manginapudi beach for the convenience of the pilgrims from Bandar bus stand and other places. The number of pilgrims increased as the day went on, especially at the ancient Panduranga Swamy temple in Machilipatnam.  Similarly, the number of pilgrims was sizeable at Suryalanka beach with visitors taking the holy dip. 

Bapatla DSP D. Gangadharam said that 500 policemen and 100 NDRF teams were deployed to avoid any untoward incident.
A large number of devotees offered special pujas in the Shiva temples at old Amaravati, Daida, Peddakakani and other places in Guntur district and took holy dip in the Krishna river.