Hyderabad: The much awaited Krishna Pushkaralu began on a grand note at various designated ghats along the course of the Krishna river, on Friday in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

At the auspicious moment of 5:58 a.m, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao along with his spouse Shobha took a holy dip at Gondimalla pushkar ghat near Alampur of Mahabubnagar district. After offering prayers to the river, the Chief Minister proceeded to Jogulamba temple and offered prayers and presented silk clothes to the presiding deity.

Civic and sanitation personnel in full force prior to start of the Krishna Pushkaralu on Friday, in Vijayawada.

Meanwhile, in Andhra Pradesh the Krishna Pushkaralu was formally inaugurated by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu when he along with his spouse Bhuvaneshwari took a holy dip at Durga ghat in Vijayawada in the early hours of Friday. The couple then offered silk saree, turmeric and vermellon to the river. Devotees, in large numbers, gathered at designated bathing ghats since the early hours of Friday.

In view of the tragic stampede incidents witnessed during Godavari pushakaralu, the authorities this time have focussed on crowd control at the bathing ghats. Besides police, scores of volunteers are keeping a vigil at the bathing ghats. Special CCTV cameras, which can read the approximate number of people at the location and thus help crowd control, have been installed on the roads leading upto the bathing ghats. Using the information from these cameras and data from the ground report, police officials expect to restrict the flow of pilgrims at the ghats, Vijayawada Police Commissioner Gautam Sawang said.

Similar security measures are in place at Amaravati, Srisailam, Mahbubnagar and Nalgonda. Besides security and crowd control, governments of both the states have laid importance to cleanliness at all pushkar ghats to prevent outbreak of any diseases. Civic officials have been deployed at all strategic points in various shift system to ensure round-the-clock maintenance of hygien and cleanliness.

Telangana website for Krishna Pushkaralu: http://pushkaralu.telangana.gov.in Helpline centres and control rooms have been established to disseminate information and receive complaints from the devotees. The helpline numbers are 040-24755522, 040-24750102, 7794014301 or 7794014302.