The State government is expecting over one crore pilgrims to Sammakka Saralamma Jatara, billed as one of the biggest tribal events, at Medaram.
The jatara will be held for four days from February 16 to 19 and the State government has intensified its efforts to make necessary arrangements for the festival not to give scope for any inconvenience to the visiting devotees. Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar and Director General of Police M. Mahender Reddy reviewed the progress of arrangements with senior officials through a teleconference on Friday.
Officials of the Home, Revenue, Energy, Tribal Welfare, Health, Municipal Administration, Rural Water Supply, TSRTC and other departments participated in the review meeting. The Chief Secretary directed the officials concerned to work with utmost coordination in making the arrangements for pilgrims. They were instructed to coordinate with the priests and Medaram jatara trust board members in taking steps to see that pilgrims complete darshan and leave the venue comfortably.
Steps had already been taken to release water into Jampanna Vagu, a main venue of the jatara on Friday while the Endowments and Engineering wings had almost completed the works entrusted to them. The TSRTC on its part had decided to operate 3,850 buses to transport around 21 lakh devotees while the Health department would deploy 35 medical camps in addition to the main hospital.
Bath and toilet facilities were being provided to the visitors while teams would be pressed into service for chlorination of water resources from time to time as part of health safety measures. Steps would be taken to set up additional sub-stations and transformers for providing uninterrupted power supply at the Jatara venue.
In all, 18 camps would be set up for missing children and the services of Panchayat Raj department officials from 19 districts would be utilized for maintaining sanitation. A total of 5,000 staff from the Panchayat Raj department would be deployed on duties during the Jatara.
The DGP said elaborate security arrangements had been made at the jatara venue for peaceful conduct of the Jatara. Officials with previous experience in handling the jatara had been deployed as part of bandobust and traffic regulation duties to avoid scope for stampede. Around 9,000 police personnel would be on duty and the department had set up a command control centre to constantly monitor arrangements at the Jatara. Adequate number of fire tenders had also been put in place to meet any emergencies.
‘Foolproof security’
Briefing mediapersons about the jatara bandobust plan in Mulugu on Friday, Superintendent of Police Sangram Singh Patil said foolproof security arrangements had been made in anticipation of a large turnout of a little over one crore devotees over the four days of the jatara.
Around 10,000 police personnel would be on jatara bandobust duty.
Arrangements are in place to ensure round-the-clock surveillance using 382 CCTV and two drone cameras, the footage of which will be monitored through 20 display panels integrated with the Command Control Centre in Medaram.
Parking lots with ample space were set up at suitable locations with a capacity to accommodate 3 lakh to 3.5 lakh vehicles and 4,000 TSRTC buses.
There will be one police outpost for every 2 km between Pasra and Medaram and mobile police teams will be pressed into service along this route to ensure smooth movement of vehicular traffic, the SP added.
To attend to breakdown of vehicles, if any, and prevent traffic snarls on the main road to Medaram, as many as six towing vehicles, 11 cranes and 20 JCB machines will be kept ready.
He appealed to devotees to follow the traffic rules and the COVID safety precautions.
