No water, no toilets: Poor arrangements mar Chandanotsavam festival, many left without darshan

Visakhapatnam, April 23: Devotees attending the annual Chandanotsavam at Simhachalam faced umpteen difficulties for the darshan of Lord Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy on Sunday due to poor arrangements.

The devotees waited in the queue for five to six hours to have the darshan of the Lord. Some of the devotees even returned without darshan.

Sri Sarada Peetham Seer Swamy Swaroopanandenrda Maha Swamy said this was the worst ever festival in the history of Simhachalam.

Endowment minister Kottu Satyanarayana, who offered silk robes to the deity, had heated arguments with the devotees standing in the queue when they shouted slogans against the government. He told them that they did not come as per the allotted time slot which resulted in a jam.

Minister was also seen shouting at the police officials for allowing the devotees who did not follow the time schedule.

Local devotees, who attend the festival every year, said the police, endowment, revenue, and other department officials have learnt nothing from the past.

Though over 2,000 police personnel were deployed for security and traffic arrangements, they failed to control the situation. People were seen in queues from the base to the hill moving at a snail's pace. It took five hours to return from the temple to the base, many said.

The district administration had anticipated such a large turnout of devotees for the annual festival, but they failed to provide safe drinking water, toilets, and a few other facilities to the devotees. “I have never seen such a worst arrangement in my life,” said P Sunitha, who has been attending the festival for the past two decades.

Angry devotees questioned Botsa Satyanarayana and local YSRC leaders for the poor arrangements. He said there was no crowd for the last two years due to Covid-19. “This year unexpected crowd from two Telugu states as well as from Chhattisgarh and south Odisha came to the temple in good numbers,” he said.