Dasara Celebrations: Traders throng Durga temple in Vijayawada

Vijayawada: Devotees thronged Sri Durga Malleswara Swamy Devasthanams atop Indrakeeladri to worship Goddess Kanakadurga adorned in Mahalakshmi alankaram on the sixth day of the Dasara celebrations on Tuesday.

Pilgrims waited in the queue lines from the early hours for darshan. It took nearly three hours for the devotees to have the darshan of Goddess Kanakadurga.

A majority of the devotees, who visited the temple this morning, were from the business community as Mahalakshmi is considered the goddess of wealth and it is believed that worshipping her will ward off financial crises.

Around 72,000 devotees had darshan of the goddess till 7 pm. The temple was beautifully decorated with special flowers brought from Karnataka and Maharashtra. 

The temple officials and police made elaborate arrangements for the convenience of the devotees.

A few associations and business communities from I Town distributed food and buttermilk free of cost to the pilgrims waiting in the queue lines.

Former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Konijeti Rosaiah visited the temple and expressed happiness over the arrangements.

Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao, MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, film actor Chiranjeevi’s wife Surekha and others had darshan of the goddess on Tuesday.

Vehicles carrying senior citizens, physically-challenged and the media were not allowed to go beyond the Omkaram curve  while those of the VVIPs were allowed to go till the temple. Devotees expressed anguish over the police and the temple officials for giving privilege to the VVIPs and ignoring the common devotees.

“Officials are ignoring the common devotees and giving priority to VIPs in the name of protocol. We walked for nearly 3 km to have the darshan but as we reached the sanctum sanctorum, the temple staff kept pulling us, not allowing us to have the darshan properly,” bemo-aned K. Varalakshmi, a resident of Madhura-nagar in the city.. The staff at the anna prasadam are also rude, she said.