Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Additional Executive Officer A.V. Dharma Reddy has said that advance measures initiated by the temple trust board helped it deal with the sudden surge in devotee count at the Lord Venkateswara temple at Tirumala.
In an apparent reference to TDP national president N. Chandrababu Naidu’s remarks that the devotees were subjected to severe difficulties owing to the failure of the TTD management in providing proper shelter and drinking water at the counters, Mr. Dharma Reddy on Wednesday said that issuing of ‘sarva darshan tokens’ was stopped since April 9, with the exhaustion of the tokens for the next three days.
“As an immediate measure to bring the situation under control, the TTD cancelled the rule that demanded mandatory possession of darshan tokens. It also allowed devotees to travel up to the hill town without restriction. Further, the TTD has suspended the VIP break darshan till April 17,” Mr. Dharma Reddy told the media at the Annamaiah Bhavan.
Even as there were only around 20,000 devotees at the ticket counters, he said, a few among them who grew restive at the sudden jostling added to the confusion.
The slotted sarva darshan (SSD) tokens were introduced in 2016 with an aim of providing hassle-free darshan to devotees. “It is unfortunate that people with vested interests are hell bent on slinging mud on the TTD administration for personal gain,” alleged Mr. Dharma Reddy.
He said that the TTD management, despite several threats, have adopted an aggressive approach to eliminate the middle-men who used to run a parallel administration till a couple of years back and fleece the devotees.
