“PROVIDING HASSLE FREE DARSHAN TO ALL IS OUR TOP PRIORITY”-EO

TIRUMALA, NOVEMBER 1:  The Executive Officer of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Sri MG Gopal reiterated that providing hassle free darshan to the multitude of visiting pilgrims is the top priority and the temple management is always keen in exploring new ways and means to achieve its goal to satisfy the pilgrims.

Receiving the calls from the pilgrims’ callers from across the country on Friday as a part of the monthly “Dial Your EO Programme” inTirumala at Annamaiah Bhavan, the EO reacted to the queries and suggestions of about 25 pilgrim callers. He said the management has taken measures on some issues which were brought to its notice during last month’s programme.

Meanwhile most of the questions on Friday dealt with the advance reservation of some Arjitha Seva tickets including Abhishekam, TTD’s decision of cancellation of Rs.50 sudarshan tokens in RTC bus stand in Tirupati etc.

Reacting to the queries on hassle free darshan and pilgrim crowd management the EO said that the top priority of TTD is to provide a satisfactory darshan to its pilgrims. “This is again dependent on the pilgrim rush. Since we are maintaining four types of queue lines, when the rush is less, it may take two hours for Rs.300 special entry darshan pilgrims. But the case is different if the crowd is heavy.

Then their waiting time will increase to 5-10hours also. For Rs.50 darshan, since they book the ticket in advance and plan their trip, the darshan will be provided to them as per the time slot mentioned on the token. For Sarva Darshan pilgrims, the waiting hours will range between 5hrs to 10hrs during less rush period but may cross over 35 hours when there is heavy pilgrim influx. With the Divya Darshan (footpath) gaining vast popularity in the recent times, it will take about 4 hours during less rush period and over 15hours if the rush is heavy.

“From the past few days, since the pilgrim crowd is below 50thousands we could able provide a hassle free and satisfactory darshan to every one. The pilgrims should understand this and co-operate with the administration”, he said answering to the caller Sri Murali from Bhattiprolu of Guntur District, Sri Mallikarjuna of Vijayawada and Sri Vijaykumar of Chennai.

Answering the queries of pilgrim callers Sri Mohitosh of Chittoor, Sri Mastanaiah of Nellore and Sri Satyanarayana of West Godavari the EO said, advance booking of arjitha Seva ticekts like Abhishekam has been cancelled from the past few years since they have been booked for the next two decades. “There is no point of releasing those tickets now which are available only after twenty years. But, however, the pilgrims can avail the lucky dip quota”, he added.

Reacting to the questions of Sri Sankar Rao of Papanaidupeta and Sri Ramanujam of Coimbattore on cancellation of Rs.50 tokens issuance in Tirupati RTC bus stand, the EO said, the decision has been taken only to minimise the corruption, after it has been noticed that majority of these tickets are being misused a lot by some middlemen. “However the tokens are available in Mahati Auditorium and Srivari Sannidhi in Tirupati in limited numbers”, he added.

EO ELABORATES ON RELIGIOUS EVENTS IN NOVEMBER

Earlier before the commencement of Dial Your EO programme, the EO enlisted the religious events that are going to take place in Tirumala and Tirupati in the month of November for the sake of the pilgrims. He said, after the nine-day mega religious event of Brahmotsavams of Lord Venkateswara, the temple administration is gearing up to conduct Goddess Padmavathi Ammavaru brahmotsavams in the temple town of Tiruchanoor which is slated for November 29 to December 7, this year.

“The fourth phase of Managudi will be performed in around 22thousand temples across the state on November 17, on the auspicious occasion of Karthika Pournima along with the collaboration of AP Endowments department”, he maintained.

The EO also said, as a part of this mass festival, there will be Karthika Vanabhojanotsavam on November 11, Mass Satyanarayana Vratam on November 13, Thulasi Puja and Kaisika Dwadasi on November 14 etc.

Similarly, the Deepavali Asthanam will be performed in Srivari temple at Tirumala on November 3, Nagulachavithi on November 7, Annual Pushpa Yagam on November 10, Vanabhojanotsavam on November 14 and Karthika Deepotsavam on November 17.

MEDIA CONFERENCE EXCERPTS:

Later addressing media persons after the completion of the Dial Your EO programme, the EO said a team of environmentalists led by Sri Anji Reddy visited Tirumala couple of days ago and they will submit a detailed report on what sort of measures need to be taken to protect Tirumala ecology in a better way.

JEOs Sri KS Sreenivasa Raju, Sri P Bhaskar and heads of various departments of TTD were also present.

ISSUED BY PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER, TTD, TIRUPATI