It has been 60 years that the Ganesh Utsavs are celebrated grandly in Hyderabad. But, never the Laddu that has been offered to Lord Ganesha as Prasadam was sold, in the past. It has been a customary practice that the Laddu used to be distributed among the devotees, free of cost. Unfortunately, last year the Laddu got spoiled due to heavy rains, ultimately leading for the consecration of the Laddu along with the idol.
The Khairatabad Ganesh Utsav Committee took this decision to sale the Laddu for the first time after PVVS Mallikarjun Rao, a sweet-maker from Tapeswaram in East Godavari district, made the proposal to sell a portion of the Laddu.
Mallikarjun has been offering the Laddu free of cost for the past four years. This year, Mallikarjun is to prepare even a bigger Laddu weighing around 4,800 kg. Of this, 1,250 kilograms will be put on sale for devotees, added sources. The Ganesh Utsav Committee has decided to sell the Laddu at Rs 200 per kg through special counters. The remaining Laddu will be distributed free to the devotees. The estimated expenditure for making this year’s Laddu would be Rs 15 lakh, said the sweet-maker.
According to the committee chairman S Sudershan, the amount raised through the sale will be used to construct a permanent structure for the Khairatabad Ganesh. The Ganesh Utsav Committee members and Mallikarjun met the Saifabad police and sought adequate police force during the distribution of the laddu to the devotees. The cops agreed to deploy a circle inspector and 45 police constables at the time of the laddu distribution, added sources.
