The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Heavy rush of pilgrims at Tirumala

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 02, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Others

Heavy rush of pilgrims at Tirumala

By Our Staff Reporter

TIRUMALA, MAY 1. The temple of Lord Venkateswara, Tirumala, which has been drawing thin crowds, in spite of the summer vacations for the last couple of weeks, probably owing to the `elections' in the State, today witnessed a sudden `surge' in the turnout of crowd.

Despite the fact that, elections are still under process in several parts of the country, the unexpected `boom' in the turnout of the crowd is attributed to the declaration of the tenth standard results in the State, on Friday.

According to available statistics, the waiting time for the pilgrims preferring the paid Sudarsan tokens of Rs. 40 to Rs. 60 is put around 46 hours, while those opting `free' darshan is put around 52 hours.

Long queue at the Kalyanakatta, Annadanam and various cottage allotment counters had become the order of the day. Pilgrims were forced to wait for several hours to get a minimum accommodation for their families. The devotees who were even deprived of a minimum accommodation were forced to invade public places like - gardens, platforms and the premises of various TTD buildings.

In view of the heavy turnout of the pilgrims, the TTD had imposed restrictions on the issuance of the cellar entry and other break darshan tickets.

A senior temple official said hat, it is only the `beginning' of the summer crowd which we were anticipating for the last three weeks.

The `rush' is expected to further increase after the completion of the ongoing election process in the other States and declaration of election results, on May 13.

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Heavy rush of pilgrims at Tirumala