Telangana: Telangana’s Medaram Jatara, considered to be Asia’s largest tribal fair celebrated over four days every two years, began Wednesday at Medaram village of Mulugu district. The fair expected to be visited by over 1 crore people is organised to celebrate the valour of Adivasi icons Sammakka and Sarakka, who are considered to be protectors of the community. The fair will culminate on February 19.
The deity Saralamma Ammavaru will reach the throne from Kannepalli this evening. On Tuesday, priests brought deity Jampanna from Kannepalle and weighed him on the throne while deities Pagididda Raju and Govindaraju will reach the streets for worship by the devotees. Medaram premises have been decorated with lights during the night time. Huts were set up early in the morning with beautifully decorated rangolis.
Devotees have queued up for the Medaram deities' blessings which usually takes two hours time for each devotee. Devotees from different parts of the country offer jaggery as a gift to the goddess on the occasion. Public representatives have also been visiting the Medaram fair with CM KCR scheduled to get a darshan of Sammakka and Saralamma on 18th of this month.
Congress leaders have demanded a national status to Medaram Jathara. During the Festivities in Medaram, 11,000 policemen have been deployed as part of the high security arrangements for the Jatara with a police outpost half a kilometer away from the venue that is connected to the government control rooms. The venue is also monitored with nearly 22,000 CCTV cameras while more than a dozen drones are also being used as the fair takes off.
LED screens and public mic systems have been launched at 11 locations for missing children and adults at the fair. Ten Wi-Fi hotspots have also been set up by the Telangana IT department to facilitate the devotees. The Telangana government has also taken up a development work at the fair premises at a cost of Rs75 crore including the widening of the main road from Warangal.
About 50 lakh vehicles, including 4,000 RTC buses, were expected to arrive at the fair with the government having banned plastic in view of the public rush. More than 20,000 permanent and temporary toilets have been constructed in 327 areas for the devotees. Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar and DGP Mahender Reddy are reviewing the arrangements in Medaram on a daily basis.
Ministers Satyavathi Rathode, Errabelli Dayakar Rao and Indrakaran Reddy have been deputed at Medaram for supervision. However, people have been complaining about parking facility for private vehicles being far away at fair premises even as 1,100 acres of land was allocated for the facility. A bus station has been set up on 32 acres. This year, five mega sheds were built on a permanent basis for the accommodation of the devotees. Traffic congestion is a major problem for the fair even as the government has made special arrangements to control it.
