68,21,714 persons were provided food in the first nine days of the 12-day river festival in Vijayawada.
Krishna Pushkaram-2016 presented some inspiring case studies with the free food distribution for pilgrims standing out as the best.
A staggering 68,21,714 persons were provided food in the first nine days of the 12-day river festival in Vijayawada, the central point of the Pushkaram in Andhra Pradesh, Krishna district Joint Collector Gandham Chandrudu told PTI.
By the end of the festival on the August 23, the aggregate number is expected to cross over 90 lakh.
This is a record of sorts and the entire exercise is now being documented so that it could find place in the Guinness World Records, the official said.
In the Amritsar Golden Temple, one lakh pilgrims are provided free food, the same in Tirumala. About 50,000 to one lakh pilgrims are served everyday at Dharmasthala Manjunatha temple in Karnataka and about 40,000 in Shirdi in Maharashtra.
The food distribution during Krishna Pushkaram clearly eclipsed those numbers.
On August 18, the highest number of 9,91,440 pilgrims were served free food and yesterday the number was 9,54,990, Chandrudu said.
Everything was meticulously planned and executed by a core team comprising Krishna district Joint Collector, district Supplies Officer Ravi Kiran and Assistant Supplies Officer Komali Padma, with Pushkaram Special Officer B Rajasekhar guiding them.
Pilgrims rated the food as excellent, very good and good with not one adverse remark or complaint about the quality or quantity.
The fare dished out also had a good variety from upma and hot pongal for breakfast to regular meal, tamarind rice, tomato rice and even vegetable biryani for lunch and dinner.