Telugu New Year Ugadi  was celebrated with gaiety and traditional enthusiasm in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh on Saturday .

People in both the Telugu states offered special prayers, decorated the entrances of their houses and shops with strings of mango leaves, tasted the traditional festival food and heard ‘panchangnam’ to usher in the New Year.

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The Chief Ministers of the two states attended the main official celebrations in their respective state capitals, where ‘agma’ pundits read the ‘panchangnam’ or the forecast of the coming year.

Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao attended the official function at Pragati Bhavan, his official residence in Hyderabad while his Andhra Pradesh counterpart Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy launched the celebrations in Vijayawada.

Both the leaders wished that Ugadi, this year named as ‘Sri Shubhakruth’ would bring peace and prosperity for Telugu-speaking people living across the world.

KCR, as the Telangana Chief Minister is popularly known, expressed hope that the New Year will usher in peace and prosperity. He said his government was working for the welfare of all sections of people and the schemes being implemented by it are being emulated by other states.

KCR’s cabinet colleagues and senior officials attended the celebrations.

Jagan Mohan Reddy along with his wife Y.S. Bharathi Reddy participated in the Ugadi celebrations at his official residence.

Attired in traditional dhoti and kanduva, the Chief Minister graced the event and extended greetings to all present on the occasion.

The priests of Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanams (TTD) welcomed him with Poornakumbham and festivities were held in a traditional way depicting Telugu culture.

The Chief Minister paid floral tributes to the statue of former Chief Minister Dr Y.S. Rajashekar Reddy which was set up near the special stage. Later, he interacted with the children who were present on the occasion. The Chief Minister said the name of the year ‘Subhakriti’ has good in it and hoped that God’s grace and people’s blessings give more strength to the state government to do more good to the people of the state.

Thousands of devotees thronged temples to pray for happiness and prosperity. Special prayers were held at Tirumala, Srisailam, Vijayawada and Bhadrachalam temples.

People also attended special functions where pundits read out the religious almanac of the coming year. Literary discussions, poetry recitations, recognition of authors through awards and cultural programmes marked the day.

Women prepared ‘Ugadi pacchadi’, a mixture of neem buds, raw mango, tamarind juice, pepper, jaggery and salt, which is a necessary part of the celebratory dishes. The mixture symbolises various hues of life.

Ugadi celebrations were also held at the headquarters of political parties in both the states.

Governors and Chief Ministers of both the state’s greeted people on Ugadi.

KCR said that the year of ‘Shubhakrut’, which wraps up the auspiciousness in the name itself, will bring good fortune to the people in all spheres.

He said that Telangana is on the path of progress in a very short period of time. The CM expressed his happiness that with the blessings of God, Telangana was abuzz with plentiful water and green fields.

KCR said Telangana government was giving maximum encouragement to the irrigation and agriculture sectors. The CM said the Telangana government is the only government in the country that gave the highest priority to the welfare of the farmers.

The CM said that Telangana has achieved unprecedented development in the field of agriculture to make the country proud in its entirety. He said that Telangana is now challenging the Centre in procuring grain with the highest crop yield. He said the state government was working tirelessly to reach this level.

The Telangana government is following the motto that ‘all people will be happy when agriculture is good’. The CM said that the development of the agricultural sector has indirectly helped the employment opportunities in concerned productive and service sectors for the youth in Telangana.