Telangana: Celebrating 'Bathukamma' festival, women stage protest against LPG cylinder price hike

Karimnagar (Telangana) [India], October 8 : The women of Jammikunta in Huzurabad here on Thursday while celebrating the 'Bathukamma' festival staged a protest against rising prices of the LPG by dancing around a cylinder and singing traditional songs.
The festival of Bathukamma is celebrated by the women in Telangana, where they dress in colourful traditional attire and dance around the flowers singing the tune of Bhatukamma songs.
However, this year Bathukamma served dual purposes --the women celebrated the festival as well as showed a mark of protest against the government by singing songs against the price hike of gas cylinder, CNG, Diesel.
The women placed a gas cylinder along with flowers and sang around it.
Earlier on Wednesday, the petroleum companies have hiked the price of domestic Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders by Rs 15.
Bathukamma celebrations are held throughout the ten days of Dussehra. Though primarily Bathukamma is considered as a festival of the Telangana region, Krishna district villages bordering Telangana also celebrate this festival in a grand manner.
Bathukamma means 'Goddess of Life'. Women decorate a special pot with seasonal flowers, fill the pot with offerings to the Goddess, and go on a procession in the village.