B Dasarath Reddy: Krishna Pushkaralu an official affair in Andhra Pradesh

Chandrababu Naidu's govt was involved in every aspect of the festival - be it administration, arrangements or spending

The 12-day Krishna Pushkaralu, held once in 12 years across several places in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh along the river Krishna, ended in the lower riparian state recently.

According to an official estimate, close to 20 million people took holy dips in the Krishna in Andhra Pradesh, including 1.5 million on the last day.

Unlike the other states where the Pushkaralu is held, in Andhra Pradesh it became an official programme, with state government involvement on a major scale in its administration, arrangements and spending.

In the light of casualties due to a stampede at the Godavari Maha Pushkaralu in Rajahmundry last year as well as other shortfalls in amenities, the state government scaled up arrangements at the Krishna Pushkaralu.

The Krishna Pushkaralu took place more than a year since Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu started running his administration from Vijayawada on the banks of the Krishna, instead of Hyderabad, the joint capital of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for 10 years from the date of bifurcation of undivided Andhra Pradesh.

Vijayawada has been the epicentre of the Pushkaralu even though people also take holy dips at ghats built in the adjoining Guntur district and the upstream Kurnool districts. For the 12 days of the Pushkaralu, Naidu and his administrative machinery dedicated their time and energy to it.

Sitting in Vijayawada, Naidu monitored everything connected with the Pushkaralu from a command and control centre set up especially for this purpose. Now, the government has decided to create a permanent command and control centre in Vijayawada for such large-scale events. Hundreds of CCTVs and other tracking technology were deployed for monitoring visitors and those taking holy dips at the ghats.

The government used geotagging to trace children, who got lost in the crowd, and an app connecting multi-disciplinary teams of about 60,000 people to exchange feedback on arrangements. Drones and other surveillance equipment were used to ensure the safety of people. Naidu also took short rounds of the ghats every day and addressed people, seeking their involvement and support for his work on various sectors of the economy.

The moment a family got down from a train or bus, the basic requirements of their short stay were taken care of by the government - be it food and toilet facilities or local transport - for free.

The government made arrangements for 35 million visitors - a similar number is estimated to have taken part in the Godavari Maha Pushkaralu last year.

The ghats were built almost contiguously at a length of 16 km, starting from Prakasham Barrage in Vijayawada to Pavitra Sangam near Ibrahimpatnam, the point where the water being pumped from the Godavari through the Rs 1,400-crore Pattiseema Lift Irrigation scheme, enters one of the Krishna tributaries upstream of Prakasham Barrage.

People took holy dips in the Krishna, which was being partly replenished with water from the Godavari on this stretch - an outcome of the river-linking project implemented by the AP government for the first time ever in India.

The Naidu government showcased this achievement by promoting Pavitra Sangam. To his satisfaction people came in large numbers to take holy dip there.

As the Polavaram project - given national project status under the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 - takes more time to complete, Naidu took an innovative shortcut to achieve diversion of the Godavari for irrigation and drinking water needs in the Krishna delta. This was the first major initiative put into action by Naidu in his first year in government.

He commissioned a lift irrigation scheme capable of pumping 80 tmc of water during the four months of the flood season into the Krishna from nearly 170 km away at a maximum discharge capacity of 7,500 cusecs.

Although Prakasham Barrage has been allocated over 160 tmc of water for meeting the irrigation needs of 13 lakh acres of command area in the Krishna delta, the delayed release of water from upstream reservoirs increased uncertainty regarding the timing of sowing and the timely availability of water. Delayed sowings spelt trouble for Krishna delta farmers, as the harvesting season coincides with cyclonic formations in the October-November period during the north-east monsoon.

According to AP Irrigation Department Secretary Shashi Bhushan Kumar, the Pattiseema Lift Scheme has become the first line of defence for the Krishna delta as it brings Godavari water to Prakasham Barrage much ahead of release from the upstream Krishna reservoirs to enable timely sowing.