Hyderabad: The poverty-stricken farmers of Telangana have questioned the need for the multi-crore ‘Ayutha Chandi Maha Yagam’ being performed by Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao at his farmhouse in Medak district from December 23 to 27.

The special ritual is being held as the CM is said to have vowed to perform the same during his Telangana Movement.

The pooja began on Wednesday morning with Rao being accorded a traditional welcome at the ‘yagashala’ when he arrived. He undertook a circumambulation of the ‘yagashala’ before performing ‘Garu Prarthana’ in front of the idol of ‘Chandi Matha’, a release from his office said.

The ‘Garu Prarthana’ marked the beginning of the ‘yagam’ rituals on the first day, it said.
As per reports the CM is likely to spend Rs 6-7 crore on the mega religious ritual in the state, which has declared about 50 per cent of its blocks as drought-hit.

Even as the CM claims that the expense of the ritual will be borne by him and his supporters, the distress-struck families of the farmers have been questioning the CM as to how he could resort to performing such an expensive ‘Yagam’ when the farmers in the state are ending lives due to crops loss and financial crisis.

President Pranab Mukherjee would be attending the ‘yagam’ on December 27.

The Chief Minister said besides the President, Union Ministers Venkaiah Naidu and Bandaru Dattatreya, Supreme Court Judges Justice NV Ramana and Justice J Chelameswar, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu are among others would attend the ceremony.

All arrangements have been made to accommodate as many as 40,000 invitees for the programme, Rao said.

The ‘yagam’ would be supervised by six Vedic pundits from the Sringeri Mutt in Karnataka and about 5,000 other pundits from across the country would take part in it. About 50,000 people would be provided food during the ‘yagam’, an official release had said earlier.