A moderate crowd turned out to take a holy dip in river Krishna in Andhra Pradesh, where the 12-day 'Pushkaram' festival began today with traditional gaiety and religious fervour, even as a 6-year-old boy and a head constable died during the festivity.
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his wife Bhuvaneswari joined Kanchi seer Sri Sri Jayendra Saraswati in taking the holy dip in the river Krishna at Durga Ghat here.
Though everything appeared to be going smoothly, tragedy struck late in the evening when a six-year-old boy drowned in the river at Padmavati bathing ghat in the city.
Also Read
"The boy accidentally drowned in the river and died," Police Commissioner Gautam Sawang told PTI.
The state government has announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 5 lakhs and construction of a new house for the boy's family.
No other untoward incident was reported at the bathing ghats but a Head Constable deployed for Pushkaram bandobust duties was fatally knocked down by a car at Gudavalli village near here.
'Krishna Pushkaram' is a river festival that comes once in 12 years and celebrated with traditional gaiety for 12 days.
Though the government estimated that about 15 lakh pilgrims would take a holy dip in the Vijayawada city alone on day one, only a moderate crowd of over six lakh actually turned up, said an official overseeing the festival.
With three consecutive holidays from Saturday, authorities hope the numbers would swell considerably.
Naidu and his wife later performed "gau puja" for the "prosperity of the state" and took the blessings of the Kanchi seer.
Having faced the blame for the stampede incident on the opening day of the Godavari Pushkaram at Rajamahendravaram last year, the Chief Minister stayed away from any fanfare this time and the Durga Ghat was closed for common people for the supposed 'inaugural' event early in the morning.
Deputy Chief Minister N China Rajappa and a host of other ministers also took a holy dip on the occasion.
Vijayawada wore a festive look as lakhs of pilgrims arrived in the city and headed for various bathing ghats to take the holy dip.
The hill shrine of Goddess Kanaka Durga, presiding deity of Vijayawada, swarmed with devotees, who offered special pujas.
Today being an auspicious Friday in the month of Sravana, women conducted 'Varalakshmi vratam', a traditional ritual, with devotion.
The replica temple of Lord Venkateswara at Swarajya Maidan also attracted scores of devotees.
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams and Akshaya Patra
Foundation have made arrangements for free food supply to four lakh pilgrims on all days of the festival.
Police deployed drones to record the activities at all Pushkar ghats while the government administration is using mobile applications to monitor every aspect, including crowd management, related to the event.
Krishna Pushkaram is conducted in Kurnool, Guntur and Krishna districts of AP where the river flows.
In all, 170 bathing ghats have been readied for the event in which a total of 3.5 crore devotees are expected to take part over the 12 days.
Vijayawada city alone is expected to witness a crowd of about 25 lakh per day, according to officials' assumption.
The festival is also being celebrated in Telangana, which is among the states where the Krishna river flows through.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao took a holy dip in the river at Gondimalla village in Mahbubnagar district and visited Jogulamba Temple along with his family members.
Thousands of pilgrims took a holy dip in Krishna across Mahbubnagar and Nalgonda districts where the river passes through and offered prayers at the temples located on its banks, a senior official said.
Anurag Sharma, Telangana DGP, has said as many as 13,474 police personnel were deployed to ensure smooth conduct of the festival. Eight senior most IPS officers have been posted for micro-level supervision.
The state government has set up 57 Pushkar Ghats in Mahbubnagar and 28 in Nalgonda districts for the convenience of the pilgrims.
