VIJAYAWADA: Dasara celebrations at the Kanaka Durga temple were a huge success this year, say temple authorities.
Altogether 5.7 lakh devotees had darshan of Goddess Kanaka Durga during the nine-day-long festivities, as per official records of temple authorities, while another 2.5 lakh Bhavani devotees visited the temple after the festival concluded. The number of Bhavani devotees, however, were not included with other devotees who visited during this period.
Dasara is the biggest event at the Sri Durga Malleswara Swamyvarla Devasthanams, drawing as many as 15.23 lakh devotees during celebrations in 2019. Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, temple authorities restricted this number to 10,000 devotees per day for darshan in 2020 and a total of 1.6 lakh devotees had darshan.
This year, temple authorities initially decided to permit only 10,000 devotees per day for darshan, which was later raised to 50,000 devotees.
Officials also decided to permit devotees who had booked online tokens for darshan. After online bookings received poor response from devotees, officials sold tickets at special counters. However, estimates of temple authorities were off the mark as a huge turnout of devotees was registered right from the first day of festivities. A total of 1.45 lakh devotees had darshan at the temple on Moola Nakshatram day, almost equalling overall footfall of devotees during Dasara in 2020.
Meanwhile, temple authorities had to face criticism for not maintaining social distancing at the temple.
The temple received a revenue of Rs 1.02 crore revenue through online sevas and Rs 3.02 crore through ticket sales at counters. Altogether, 15.79 lakh Laddu Prasadams were sold during the festival.
