Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is scheduled to visit the famous Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain in the state on Monday to pray for rain.
Mr Chouhan is scheduled to visit the ancient shrine at around nine in the morning on Monday, temple officer Gauri Joshi told this newspaper on Sunday.
The shrine is highly revered by devotees for housing one of the 12 Jyotirlingas.
According to temple priest Ram Pujari, the chief minister is scheduled to perform ‘Maharudra’ puja, meant for invoking rain god, at the sanctum sanctorum of the shrine on Monday morning.
The special ritual, to be performed by 66 priests of the temple, would last around two hours.
The chief minister has earlier expressed concern over the deficient rainfall in some parts of the state.
He is scheduled to convene a high level official meeting here soon to take stock of the situation.
Half of Madhya Pradesh is now reeling under dry spell due to poor rainfall in the month of August in the state.
However, the Met office has predicted heavy rainfall in the state in the second week of this month.
But, this may prove too late to save the standing crops, officials here apprehend.
According to the data released by the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh has received overall 16 percent rain deficient till September one in the current Kharif season.
At least 26 out of 53 districts in the state have received over 20 percent deficient rainfall.
According to the RMC data, the state has received an average of 662 mms of rainfall between June one and September one, as against the normal rainfall of 791.7 mm during the period.
During the month of August, the state has received an average 40 percent deficient rainfall.
The worst affected districts are Shajapur and Neemuch which have experienced 94 and 90 percent deficient rainfalls respectively.
