Hyderabad: The Krishna river festival-Krishna Pushkaralu has gotten Telangana busy. Andhra Pradesh government on Tuesday sanctioned Rs 30 crore as the ‘flexi fund’ to endowments department which will use it for marketing and promotion of the 12-day river festival.

According to the reports:

Describing it as a `flexi fund‘, the state government sanctioned the money to the endowments department. The money is likely to be spent on marketing and promotion of the Pushkarams. The endowments department was earlier granted Rs 10 crore as the `flexi fund’.

This comes after reports that despite the state facing a severe cash crunch, the TDP government has already earmarked Rs 1080 crore for the festival.

Meanwhile, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has been roped in to ensure smooth progress at all bathing ghats during the festival.

The service of NDRF forces was specially requisitioned by the State government in the wake of the stampede that killed 29 people on the first day of the 12-day Godavari Pushkaralu at Rajamahendravaram last year.

Five teams of the NDRF 10th battalion will be deployed on special duty at four places along the Krishna river where huge crowds are expected to visit. Each team consists of 45 personnel, including officers and medical staff.

‘Krishna Pushkaralu’ is a festival of River Krishna which is usually held once in 12 years. The event is observed for a period of 12 days from the time of entry of Jupiter into Virgo.

This year, the festival, which attracts lakhs of devotees from all over Andhra Pradesh and other states, will be held between August 12 to 24 in Krishna, Guntur and Kurnool districts.

Apart from this, authorities have also set up help-desk. The help-desk numbers are 138,139 and 182 which will function round-the-clock.