February 05, 2014: Barricades put up on the road leading to the Suryanarayana Swamy temple at Arasavalli in Srikakulam district on Tuesday.

Sri Suryanarayana Swamy temple authorities in Arasavalli have made elaborate arrangements for Thursday’s ‘Rathasaptami’.

Over three lakh devotees are expected to have darshan of the presiding deity on the auspicious day. The district administration, keeping the devotee rush last year, is keen on making proper arrangements this time. For the first time, ‘ksheerabhisekam’ tickets, each costing Rs.216, will be sold only in the queue lines from 11 p.m. on Wednesday. Tickets costing Rs.100 too will be sold in the queue lines.

Earlier, taking advantage of advance booking, political leaders and influential persons used to block the tickets. It was also observed that many people entered the queue lines using photo copies of the tickets. As there was no mechanism to check the veracity of the tickets, it led to utter chaos in the queue lines.

As a corrective measure, advance sale of ‘ksheerabhishekam’ tickets has been done away with. Devotees have to be in the queue line in order to obtain the tickets.

Endowments Deputy Commissioner N.V.S.N. Murthy and Assistant Commissioner R. Pushpanatham told The Hindu that the ‘ksheerabhisekam’ tickets would be sold till 6 a.m. on Thursday. After 6 a.m., those in the line would have to purchase Rs.100 ticket.

Barricading

Meanwhile, the police department has expressed displeasure over poor barricading. The department is insisting on barricading with iron rods.

“Revenue and endowments authorities are trying to strengthen the barricades,” said a senior official.