Nellore :
Devotees thronged Nellore town on Tuesday to take part in the ‘Rottela Panduga’ as it is considered auspicious to visit the Barah Shaheed dargah on the day of gandhotsvam (chandan mahotsav).
The town was packed with pilgrims who arrived from various parts of the country from early hours and the rush continued till late in the evening.
The chief of Kadapa Ameen Peer dargah Arifulla Hussaini formally launched the gandhotsavam in the early hours.
The dargah committee members brought gandham mixed in vessels in a specially decorated vehicle from Ameenia mosque in Kotamitta in the town around midnight. There was a minor stampede at the dargah as devotees jostled to receive the ‘gandham’ distributed by the dargah authorities.
Police who intervened resorted to mild lathi charge to control the situation. Pilgrims had a holy dip in the Swarnala Cheruvu, a local tank and started exchanging rotis to fulfill their wishes. There was a heavy rush for udyogam rotte (roti of job) and pelli rotte (roti of marriage) on the banks of the Swarnala Cheruvu. With people, irrespective of their religion taking part in the festivities, Nellore town virtually turned into a sea of humanity.
Although, the festivities began two days ago on the day of Muharram, the massive crowd turned up to take part in the event on Tuesday to take gandham from the dargah in addition to accept or leave roti in the tank waters.
District collector B Sridhar was one of the first visitors to the dargah and offer special prayers to the Barah Shaheed. He offered a chadar to the dargah. The entire municipal administration officials including commissioner TSR Anjaneyulu camped on the banks of the Swarnala Cheruvu to oversee the arrangements for the pilgrims for the past two days.
Municipal officials closely monitored the sanitation and drinking water supplies as thousands of devotees have been visiting the dargah since Monday. It took nearly 3-4 hours for darshan as all the queues were packed. SP Ramana Kumar and other senior police officials visited the dargah in the late hours of Monday and offered prayers.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Hyderabad / TNN / November 28th, 2012