10-day Vaikunta Dwara Darshan begins at Tirumala today
Devotees taking SSD tokens for Vaikunta Dwara Darshan at the counters set up at Bhoodevi complex in Tirupati on Sunday Photo: Kalakata Radhakrishna
Tirupati: The much-awaited issuance of tokens for the 10-day Vaikunta Dwara Darshan in the famed Tirumala temple began at about 3 am on Sunday, 11 hours before it was scheduled, as the pilgrims started pouring in from various places for the tokens well ahead of the start of the tokens issuing time here.
The tokens for January 2 to 4 exhausted on the first day of the issuing of tokens while the process of issuing 'Time Slotted Sarvadarshan' (SSD), tokens for the remaining days i.e. January 5 to 11 is going on peacefully at the nine centres set up in Tirupati, the TTD sources said adding that 1.5 lakh tokens were issued till 6 pm on Sunday.
Long queue of devotees which were seen at all the 9 centres in the morning slowly dwindled by evening, making it easy for the devotees to avail the tokens particularly at the centres located in the residential areas of the pilgrim city including Indira Maidanam, MR Palli ZP High School, Jeevakona ZP High School, Bairagipatteda Municipal School and Ramachandra Pushakarini.
The elaborate arrangements on the part of TTD, police administration and the district police which saw the issuing of tokens passing on peacefully won the appreciation of the pilgrims and also the locals including from Tirupati and surrounding areas who availed the tokens. The TTD also made arrangements for providing food, drinking water, additional toilet facilities and sanitation at all the SSD token issuing centres much to the convenience of the people.
Sources said that after the first three days tokens were exhausted, the TTD provided choice to the pilgrims to choose the date of Vaikunta Dwara Darshan on any of the dates from January 5 to 11 for which tokens are available when reports last came in (Sunday 8 pm).
It may be noted here that the 10-day Vaikunta Dwara Darshan at Tirumala temple which will start on Monday (January 2) on the auspicious Vaikunta Ekadasi would continue till January 11. Former Tirupati MLA and TDP Tirupati Assembly segment in-charge M Sugunamma along with her family members took SSD tokens for Vaikunta Dwara Darshan at Ramachandra Pushkarini centre.
She applied seeking Vaikunta Dwara Darshan to TTD authorities but as there was no confirmation received from the TTD, the TDP leader keen on having Vaikunta Dwara Darshan at Tirumala went to the centre and availed the SSD tokens.