Vemulawada  January 28, 2014: There was heavy surge of pilgrims at the Sri Raja RajeshwaraSwamyDevasthanam in Vemulawada of Karimnagar district on Monday. The devotees were forced to wait for six to eight hours for the darshan of presiding deities following the rush.

With the biennial Samakka-Sarakkajatara scheduled to begin on February 12 in Medaram, it is a tradition for the pilgrims to visit the Vemulawada temple shrine and offer prayers to the deities before going on pilgrimage to Medaramjatara. Following the arrival of heavy pilgrims rush, the temple shrine was packed to the brim with all the streets being filled with the devotees. The pilgrims were forced to form serpentine queues for several hours for the darshan.

The temple authorities said that around three lakh pilgrims had arrived at the temple shrine on Monday. They said the Devasthanam had collected a whopping Rs 45 lakh from the devotees for the conduct of various pujas and sale of prasadams on asingle day.