The Srikakulam town wore festive look as devotees from the North Andhra regions and other parts of the State thronged the Sri Suryanarayana Swamy temple at Arasavilli on the auspicious occasion of Ratha Saptami festival on Tuesday. More than one lakh devotees offered prayers to presiding deity.
The devotees said with the concerted efforts of district officials and service organisations, the darshan was relatively free of hassles this year. In the previous years, they said the followers of VIPs would stay in queuelinesfor long, making darshan ticket holders wait for hours together and that the ₹500 darshan ticket holders would wait for three to four hours.
This time, Srikaulam Collector Shrikesh B. Lathkar and Superintendent of Police Amit Bardar made many changes in queueline management and printed tickets were issued to VIPs, prohibiting unauthorised entry through the VIP queueline. Visakhapatnam Range DIG L.K.V. Ranga Rao monitored the arrangements.
VIPs including Ministers, MLAs, MLCs, Judges and IAS officers had darshan between 12 midnight and 5 a.m. while devotees were allowed into the temple after the night curfew (from 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.) imposed to check the spread of COVID-19 infections.
Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Revenue Dharmana Krishna Das offered ‘Pattuvastrams’ to the deity on behalf of the State government. “It was a great honour to participate in the first prayer,” he said. Endowments Minister Vellampalli Srinivas lauded the efforts by the officials to ensure hassle-free darshan for devotees.
Former Union Minister Killi Kruparani, A.P. Legislative Assembly Speaker Tammineni Sitaram, Srikakulam MLA Dharmana Prasada Rao, Etcherla legislator Gorle Kirankumar, Srikakulam Zilla Parishad chairperson Piriya Sairaj,Itcharapum former MLA Piriya Sairaj and other VIPs had darshan.
Many banks including Indian Bank, Indian Red Cross Society, SSR Charitable Trust, Lions Club Central, SrikakulamAryavysya Sangham, Indian Army Calling and other associations extended support to the district administration to provide facilities along the Arasavilli route.
Indian Bank Chief Manager A.K. Mohanta, Senior Manager M. Rammohan and staff distributed masks to devotees.SSR Charitable Trust president Sura Srinivasa Rao distributed water and food packets.
