The 12-day Krishna Pushkaram festival began on Friday with moderate crowd turning out to take holy dip in river.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his wife Bhuvaneswari joined Kanchi seer Sri Sri Jayendra Saraswati to take the holy dip in the river Krishna at Durga Ghat in Vijayawada. But tragedy took place when a 6-year-old boy died at Padmavati bathing ghat.
"The boy accidentally drowned in the river and died," Police Commissioner Gautam Sawang told PTI.
The state government has announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs. 5 lakhs and construction of a new house for the boy's family. In another incident a Head Constable deployed for Pushkaram duties was knocked down by a car at Gudavalli village near in Vijayawada.
'Krishna Pushkaram' is a river festival that comes once in 12 years and celebrated with traditional gaiety for 12 days.
An official overseeing the festival said “Though the government estimated that about 15 lakh pilgrims would take a holy dip in the Vijayawada city alone on day one, only a moderate crowd of over six lakh actually turned up.”
Chief Minister and his wife performed "gau puja" for the "prosperity of the state and took the blessings of the Kanchi seer. Deputy Chief Minister N China Rajappa and other ministers also took a holy dip on the occasion.
BY M. DIVYA SRI
