Pilgrim rush remains unabated in Tirumala

Tirupati: The pilgrim rush in Tirumala remains unabated on Saturday with more devotees arriving due to weekend holidays (second Saturday) and the holy Peratasi month attracting devotees from Tamil Nadu in good numbers. City MLA Bhumana Karunakar Reddy inspected the queue line near Gogarbham dam and interacted with the devotees waiting in the line for darshan. He also joined with Srivari sevaks volunteers in distributing food and water to the pilgrims in the queue lines. The MLA said the rush was unprecedented for various reasons, such as holy Peratasi month and appreciated the pilgrims for patiently waiting for long to have a glimpse of the Lord, despite facing difficulties like inclement weather and the ordeal of standing for many hours. He lauded the TTD management for its elaborate arrangements for food and water to the pilgrims.

It was the first time in Tirumala history that the queue line extended to Gogarbham dam nearly four km from outside the queue complex, he said and sought TTD to take required steps to make the devotees waiting in the lines comfortable. TTD Executive Officer AV Dharma Reddy and senior officials accompanied the MLA in the inspection. Meanwhile the waiting time remains more or less the same i.e. about 48 hours while the rush is expected to continue for two or three days. It may be noted here that the pilgrim rush started increasing due to the holiday from Wednesday and swelled on Friday resulting in the pilgrims having to wait 48 hours for darshan.