Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is understood to have given instructions to his officials not to give too much publicity for the forthcoming Krishna Pushkaralu, commencing in the first week of August.
The chief minister has reasoned that the government would not be spending much money on publicising Krishna Pushkaralu on the lines of Godavari pushkaralu, because of lack of funds in the exchequer.
He told the officials to focus on making fool-proof arrangements at the bathing ghats, rather than wasting money on publicity.
“If the arrangements are good, the people themselves will give publicity to them by word of mouth,” he said.
However, the actual reason for not giving any hype to the pushkaralu is not money but the lack of preparedness. At many places, the ghats are not ready. So, except in popular places like Vijayawada, Amaravati, Srisailam and Vijayapuri on Nagarjunasagar south, there are no proper arrangements for the smaller pilgrim centres.
It was because of too much publicity that lakhs of people thronged Rajahmundry during Godavari pushkarams on the first day, resulting in the death of several people in stampede.
