Andhra Pradesh   

Pilgrim rush peaks in Tirumala

TIRUMALA: With New Year’s day barely five days away the sacred hill abode of Lord Venkateswara has been experiencing heavy pilgrim turnout during the past two days.

Both the Vaikuntam queue complexes were full to their capacity and the darshan lines spilled out for over two kilometres outside the massive buildings. The TTD management ordered for non-issuance of darshan tickets on VIP recommendation letters and dispensed with the VIP break darshan. Free food packets and drinking water was made available to all the waiting devotees both inside the compartments as well as in the darshan queue lines.

Free milk was provided to the infants and the aged devotees. Besides this the temple management also supplied free ‘pulihora’ and ‘upma’ packets to the pilgrims.

With the TTD management stopping issuance of darshan tickets on VIP recommendation letters, devotees mobbed the cellar tickets issuing counter in a huge numbers. Sensing gravity of the situation TTD Executive Officer K. V. Ramanachary ordered for the issuance of additional number of archana anantara darshan tickets for Saturday morning.

Serpentine queue lines outside the reception counters, Nitya Annandanam complex and Kalyanakatta were order of the day. The reception staff had a tough time managing the cottage seeking devotees. Pilgrims were rather forced to wait for several hours in securing a minimum accommodation. Heated arguments between the reception staff and the pilgrims was a common sight.

Devotees who could not secure even the minimum accommodation took shelter in the open space available at various TTD establishments braving the chill weather.

To control the pilgrim crowd the temple management continued the ‘Maha laghu’ darshan system inside the temple. Things took a ugly turn on Thursday night when the devotees waiting in the queue compartments turned restive at the long waiting hours and smashed the steel gates to join the darshan lines. It is against this back drop that the TTD decided not to accept any VIP darshan letters.

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