Preparations in full swing for Medaram Jatara: Collector

All arrangements being made for the upcoming Sammakka-Saralamma Jatara, including sanitation, medical provisions, and traffic management.

District Collector Ila Tripathi said that all arrangements were being made for the successful conduct of the upcoming Sammakka-Saralamma Jatara, scheduled from February 21 to 24 at Medaram in SS Tadvai mandal. She announced that the works would be completed within two days. Anticipating a surge in devotees from February 18 onwards, Ms. Tripathi said that the government had allocated ₹75 crore for making permanent as well as temporary arrangements for this biennial event, with an additional ₹35 crore pending approval.

During an interaction with the mediapersons at Medaram near here on Thursday, Ms. Tripathi highlighted various initiatives, including the repairs to the roads, adornment of government buildings with paintings depicting tribal culture and the deployment of 4,000 sanitation workers for continuous cleanliness. Additionally, special sanitation machines in association with  ITC, SCCL, and other organisations will be pressed into process the 1,400 MTs of animal waste accumulated for every six hours during peak days of the jatara.

Ms. Tripathi outlined the sanitation facilities, mentioning the installation of 5,532 toilets across 14 clusters and 279 units, along with 230 new borewells. Furthermore, arrangements have been made to release water from Laknavaram Lake into the Jamapannavagu rivulet from February 14 to 16 to facilitate devotees taking holy dips.

Referring to the medical provisions, the nodal officer for the Jatara said that 30 special health camps would be set up at Medaram and surrounding areas. Superintendent of Police (SP) P. Sabarish stated that 14,000 police personnel will be deployed to manage traffic, prevent theft and other crimes, and oversee crowd control. Special technology will be employed to ensure orderly movement. Both the officials expected that there would be surge in women devotees during this jatara due to free travel service provision in the RTC buses. ITDA Project Officer Ankit, Additional Collector (Local Bodies) P. Srija, and Additional SP Sirisetti Sankeerth and others were present.