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A mythological dance-drama ‘Vijayeswari Durge’ was staged.

A well presented mythological dance-drama Vijayeswari Durge written by Vedantam Ramalinga Sastri and choreographed by reputed Andhra Natyam exponent Sarada Ramakrishna, Director of Ramakrishna Nritya Kala Kshetram, was staged at Gokaraju Laila Gangaraju Kala Vedika on the premises of G.V.R. Government College of Music and Dance, Vijayawada.

The dance drama unfolded the story of Mahishasura, the demon who, on securing a boon from Brahma, turns cruel and begins to torture the sages and devatas. They appeal to Narada to save them from Mahishasura. Narada takes them to Vaikuntha and the Devatas request Lord Vishnu to destroy the demon. Vishnu tells them that he cannot withdraw a boon given by Brahma. However, he says that if all the Devatas give their divine powers to Aadishakthi, she would solve their problem. Acting upon this advice, Indra, Siva, the Devatas and sages offer their powers to Aadishakthi and request her to save them from Mahishasura. .

The story was enacted in the form of a dance drama by the cast led by Sarada Ramakrishna, who donned the main role of Aadishakthi and gave an effective performance. Good portrayal as Mahishasura came from Eleswarapu Srinivas. Other roles were played by K. Subramanya Prasad (Narada), A. Poornachandra Rao (Brahma), Chinta Venkataramana (Siva), V.Satyavara Prasad (Vishnu), V. Vedasaranya, Venkatalakshmi, Lakshmi Sowjanya, Geeta, Praveena, Ramana, Jani Miya, Satyanarayana Reddy, Hemasunder, Saikrishna and Subramanya m. In the function that followed the dance-drama, well known Kuchipudi Natyacharya Vedantam Ramalinga Sastri was honoured.

Counters closed

Apart from implementation of PRC, regularisation of services of Non-Muster Rolls and compassionate appointments were some of their main demands

Many districts in coastal and Rayalaseema regions of Andhra Pradesh have been receiving heavy rainfall since yesterday as the northeast monsoon became vigorous over the south coast.

According to Meteorological Department, Nellore town received the heaviest rainfall of 17 cms, followed by Kavali 10 cm, Venkatagiri town 9 cm and Tada 8 cm (all in Nellore district), Sompeta (Srikakulam district), Gudur (Nellore) and Srikalahasti (Chittoor district) 7 cm each.

Similarly, Sullurpet (Nellore district) received 6 cm, Tirupathi, Atmakur, Rapur, Kandukur (Prakasam district) and Satyavedu (Chittoor district) recorded 5 cm rainfall each in the 24 hours ended 8.30 am today.

According to reports received here, several low-lying localities in Nellore town were marooned in the rainwater.

The Department today issued a heavy rainfall warning with isolated heavy to very heavy rain over coastal Andhra Pradesh during the next 48 hours and forecast isolated heavy rain over Rayalaseema region.

It further forecast light to moderate rain or thundershowers at a few places over Telangana region till the morning of November 1.

Rains also occurred in Hyderabad. The Department has forecast rain of thundershowers in parts of the state capital till the morning of November 1.

A delicious spread of a variety of dishes marked the beginning of Andhra Food Festival at The Gateway Hotel on Friday, which will continue up to October 31 only for dinner.

‘Bayleaf', the recently launched Indian restaurant, offered the fitting ambience as the venue to the food festival that would offer a chance to relish tastes of traditional local cuisine.

Popular Andhra dishes like gonguru mamsam and munakkaya tomato curry are part of the menu. Hotel general manager Vishal Jamuar said that all the popular traditional Andhra varieties would feature in the menu, so that it would allure people to visit. “Dishes of this region are known to be spicy and flavoured. They are tasty with spices they are cooked in. There are varieties like karivepaku kodi, royyala koora and so on. This is where Andhra cuisine comes alive,” he said.

The other attractions of the food festival would be majjiga pulusu, muvvavankai, mirapakaya puttagodugulu koora and so on. To complete the gastronomic experience, there are also the fiery fish and poultry based delectable dishes to offer mouth-watering flavours to the people. The menu features rice combinations also, which include “Pulihora”, “Nimmakaya Pulihora”, “Cut Mirchi Biryani” and so on.

Several aged men and women devotees faced many hardships to climb up the Indrakeeladri hill for a darshan of Goddess Kanakadurga on Saturday, the second day of the nine-day festival.

The 10-day Dasara festivities of Sri Durga Malleswara Swamy Varla Devasthanam atop Indrakeeladri began on a subdued note on Friday – Ashwayuja Suddha Padyami – with the pilgrims turning out in fewer numbers. The devotees worshipped the goddess who was adorned as ‘Swarna Kavachalankrita Durga Devi' with devotion and fervour.
Special vehicles

Under the supervision of Deputy Commissioner of Police M. Ravindranath Babu, the city police made elaborate security arrangements with hundreds of policemen posted at all important points like bathing ghats and on the hillock. Along with the police and the temple staff, NSS volunteers impressed the devotees by offering quick and efficient service in queue lines. Special vehicles were arranged for ferrying the aged and the disabled to the shrine. Barring some special vehicles assigned for the staff of temple duty and those of the police, no other private vehicle was allowed on to the hillock. In view of the expected rush of pilgrims at the prasadam counters, the officials of the Devasthanam opened nearly 14 counters for distribution of prasadam. However, there was no problem in getting prasadam on the first day because of the thin crowd.

The temple was opened with ‘Suprabhata Seva' at 3 a.m., which was followed by ‘Snapanabhishekam' at 3.30 a.m. and ‘Balabhoga Nivedana' at 6.30 a.m. The general public was allowed for darshan from 8 a.m. Uninterrupted darshan was provided till 11 p.m., the temple authorities said. Along with bathing ghats, shower bath facility was arranged at a few other places as well. Special ‘Kumkumarchana' was conducted between 10 a.m. and 12 noon. The queue line that began at Vinayaka temple on Canal Road witnessed sparse movement of devotees. The authorities for some time allowed vehicles even up to Model Guest House because of this. Commuters had a tough time reaching down the temple, as the frequency of free buses was not maintained properly. Arrangements were made to guide the public through public address system. At a review, In-charge Collector Gaurav Uppal expressed his satisfaction over the arrangements at the temple and suggested to the temple authorities to increase the quantity of drinking water for distribution to devotees. He asked them to arrange ‘Annadanam' at prasadam counters and provide fans for devotees in queue.

Festival season has begun in the city for the devotees of Goddess Kanakadurga and Lord Siva. The 10-day prestigious Dasara celebrations will begin at the Kanakadurga temple on Indrakeeladri on Friday morning. The organisers made elaborate arran-gements for the celebrations which are expected to attract 12 lakh devotees.

Goddess Kanakadurga will be seen in 10 alank-arams during the festivities from October 8 to 17. Kanakadurga will be seen in the attire of Swarnakavachalankruta Durgadevi, Sri Bala Tripurasundari Devi, Sri Gayatri Devi, Sri Annapurna Devi, Sri Lalita Tripurasundari Devi, Sri Saraswati Devi (Moola Nakshatram), Sri Mahalakshmi Devi and Sri Durga Devi (Durgashtami), Mahishasuramardhani Devi and finally Rajarajeswari Devi.

The joint collector, Mr Gaurav Uppa,l and the temple executive office, Mr N. Vijay Kumar, told reporters on Thursday that all arran-gements were completed for the celebrations. They said bathing ghats are ready.

Earlier, Mr Uppal revie-wed the arrangements with the officials at the sub-collector’s conference hall. On the other hand, a six-feet ice Sivalingam arranged in the Amarnath Yatra at the Swarajya Maidan is attracting thousands of devotees every day. Devotees of Lord Siva are mesmerised to see the Sivalingam, which is a replica of the Sivalingam in Kashmir.

In view of the heavy rush of pilgrims expected for the Dasara celebrations starting on October 8, the city police have imposed restrictions on movement of vehicles coming from and going towards different places, besides announcing diversions, from October 7 to 19.

A good number of parking places have also been earmarked.

All buses coming from Hyderabad will be diverted at Gollapudi bypass to go via Sitara centre, Milk project, Chittinagar, G.G. Chowk, Ganapathi Rao Road, King Hotel, Panja Centre, Railway goodsshed road, Bose statue, Low bridge, Prakasam statue, Police Control Room, City bus terminal, Krishnalanka police station and Pandit Nehru bus station.

All buses going towards Hyderabad will be diverted at Krishnalanka police station to go via city bus terminal, Police Control Room, Prakasam statue, Low bridge, Bose statue, Kaleswara Rao market, B.R.P. Road, King Hotel, Ganapathi Rao Road, V.G. Chowk, Chittinagar tunnel, Sitara Centre, Gollapudi bypass road on NH-9.

No vehicle will be allowed on the ghat road during the celebrations and no lorry carrying sand or grass will be allowed into the city.

Vehicles coming from Hyderabad and Mylavaram will be allowed to park at Bhavanipuram lorry stand and TTD land at Kummaripalem. Vehicles coming from Eluru, Guntur and Machilipatnam have to park in the vacant land in front of Padamavathi ghat and in the vacant land on the east side of Rajiv Gandhi Park. Vehicles coming from Bhavanipuram and Ibrahimpatnam will be allowed to park beside the road at head water works and TTD vacant land.

Vehicles coming from Patamata, Governorpet and Gandhinagar will be allowed to park at the paid parking place at Gadda Bomma centre, Gandhiji Women's College and Tarapet railway station.

Vehicles coming from Kothapet have to be parked at Gandhiji Women's College, Krishnaveni wholesale market complex cellar and Tarapet railway station's parking place.

Vehicles coming from Sitanagaram will be allowed to be parked in the vacant land on the east side of Rajiv Gandhi Park.

Soon after the verdict relating to the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site was pronounced by the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court on Thursday evening, people of various walks of life and religions, more particularly Muslims, took upon the task of spreading the message of peace and secularism.

The Muslim youth along with representatives of Ramakrishna Mission and other Hindu groups released doves to drive home the message of peace. Later, they organised a peace committee meeting at the Press Club at Gandhi Nagar. They took out peace rallies and organised meetings in sensitive areas of One Town.

The programmes were organised under the aegis of Muslim United Front and its president Habeebur Rahman. He said that the Muslim clerics were urged to send a peace message at Masjids. Leaders of various political parties urged the people to maintain restraint and peace. They said the judgment should not be interpreted in terms of victory of any one religion and defeat of the other. Everybody should respect the judgment and wait for the final verdict if the Supreme Court was moved, they said.

The police, who beefed up security at all vulnerable points, places of worship like masjids and temples and junctions in the city, heaved a sigh of relief when no untoward incident was reported. Security was tightened in all the sensitive areas. The City Armed Reserve (CAR) police and Quick Response Team (QRT) forces were stationed at all important places.