Andhra Pradesh

Ganesh festival starts on religious note

Ganesha in Tirumala: A pandal designed in the form of Tirumala temple gopuram at the Ganj Maidn in Sangreddy.

SANGAREDDY: The ten-day Ganesh festival in all major towns of Medak district began on a religious note with several organizations setting up pandals with different models of Ganesh idols in varying sizes.

The festivity will continue till the day of Nimajjanam in the near by water bodies. Of all the pandals, the eighteen-foot Ganesh idol installed in a golden ‘gopuram’ resembling that of Tirumala temple at the Ganjmaidan here is attracting huge crowds.

The temple shaped pandal was built at a cost of Rs. 5 lakh and the interiors look like a cinema setting.

Artists from Dar Decorations of Kolkata were hired to do the interiors. Forty workers took a whole week to complete the work.

The incessant rain did not deter the devotees from visiting the pandals and paying obeisance to the Lord.

Pooja was performed in more than 50 pandals on Chaturthi day.

The pandal at Ambedkar Chowk organized by the Chaitanya Yuvajana Sangham was opened by the Joint collector Ramsankar Nayak.

The turbaned Ganesha here was a big attraction.

The pandal of the Vivekananda youth association was inaugurated by the local legislator T. Jayaprakash Reddy.

In Gajwel alone more than 60 different organizations set up Ganesh idols including a 15- foot idol in Madhuranagar.

However the poor of Kallagadda in Ramayampet expressed their displeasure by setting up a pandal in a burial ground.

The vacant Government land here was being used as a burial ground by the local public.

Recently the CPI (M) activists helped the poor to erect tents under the Bhu Phoratum programme.

They pooled money and installed idol as a mark of protest.

Ramayampet police are on a vigil as the protest could rake up religious sentiments.

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