The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : President arrives in Tirupati to hectic schedule

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Monday, Jul 07, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

President arrives in Tirupati to hectic schedule

Special Correspondent

Pratibha Patil to unveil the TTD’s Platinum Jubilee pylon at Alipiri today

Bomb disposal squads deployed on ghat road
Security intensified in and around the temple complex

Warm welcome: President Pratibha Patil being received by TTD Trust Board Chairman B. Karunakar Reddy at Tirumala on Sunday. Executive Officer K.V. Ramanachary is also seen.

TIRUPATI: President Pratibha Patil flew in here on Sunday by a special IAF aircraft, along with her husband Devi Singh Shekhawat and other family members, on a two-day pilgrimage-cum-official visit at Tirumala and Tirupati. On her arrival at the Tirupati airport around 5.55 p.m. she was given a warm welcome by a number of officials and non-officials. Among those who received the President were Deputy Speaker of the Assembly G. Kuthuhalamma and Minister for Medical Education and Health Insurance G. Aruna Kumari.

The President later accompanied by her entourage reached Tirumala amid an unprecedented scale of security. Bomb disposal squads were deployed all along the ghat road leading to the hill town and sniffer dogs pressed into service. Security was intensified in and around the temple complex.

On her arrival at the posh Sri Padmavati guest house, she was accorded a warm reception by the TTD Trust Board Chairman B. Karunakar Reddy, EO K.V. Ramanachary, Inspector General of Police R.P. Thakur, DIG Sujatha Rao and TTD Special Officer A.V. Dharma Reddy.

Meets SC delegation

Sources said that the President on Sunday night met in her suite a delegation of SC leaders from the State in connection with the controversy raging over the TTD management allegedly showing ‘social discrimination’ to idols of Lord Venkateswara used during the recent ‘Dalita Govindam’, a proactive programme conducted by the TTD authorities and the priests in a SC colony near Tirupati.

While the SC bodies insist that the deities be kept inside the sanctum sanctorum of the temple of Lord Venkateswara along with other deities, the TTD is objecting to it on the ground that induction of any idols into the sanctum other than the ones already installed inside would amount to violation of the prescriptions in the scriptures and Agamas.

Bhakti Channel

The President after pre-dawn darshan in the temple on Monday would reach Tirupati around 10 a.m. and unveil the TTD’s Platinum Jubilee pylon at Alipiri. She would inaugurate the four-day ‘Amrutotsavam’ (Platinum Jubilee) fete and would also participate in the first convocation of the TTD’s super-specialities hospital-cum-medical university, SVIMS. She would also declare open the TTD’s Oriental College building besides formally commissioning ‘Sri Venkateswara Bhakti Channel’. The President would leave Tirupati around 1.30 p.m. on Monday winding up her two-day visit.

Meanwhile, reviewing the arrangements for ‘Amrutotsavam’ from the Maldives, Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy has said that the State government would develop Tirumala as the world’s holiest pilgrim centre by providing state-of-the-art facilities.

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