200 crore for Medaram Jatara: CM KCR

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Friday announced a special fund of Rs 200 crore to provide permanent facilities at the abode of Sammakka and Saralamma, the tribal deities worshipped biennially as part of the jatara. He also announced that he would take up the issue of getting the festival a national tag during his next visit to New Delhi.

The Chief Minister had darshan of the deities amid tight security and made the ritual offerings, fulfilling his solemn promises that he had made at the height of the fight for Telangana State.

Later, speaking to mediapersons, he said: “Medaram Jatara is the Kumbh of the South, and it



deserves the tag of national festival. Despite our representations to the Centre, it has not been considered yet. I will bring it to the notice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on my next visit to New Delhi.”

Chandrashekhar Rao said the Rs 200 crore he had announced in addition to the Rs 80 crore sanctioned for the festival arrangements at the tribal shrine this time would be allocated in the 2018-19 budget. “There should be better facilities for devotees taking a holy dip in Jampanna Vagu,” he stressed, adding that there was a need to construct a dam across the Jampanna Vaagu to facilitate devotees taking a holy dip.