Tirumala sees steep fall in devotees

Tirupati: The number of devotees visiting Tirumala for darshan is gradually coming down due to rapid rise in Covid cases in the states, more so in southern states including Andhra Pradesh.

On Friday, only 4,255 devotees turned up for darshan in Tirumala temple which is the lowest after the shrine was thrown open for darshan on June 11.

From June 22, only Rs 300 special entry ticket holders numbering 9,000 who have already booked the darshan tickets, are able to have darshan as the TTD stopped issuing of offline Sarvadarshan tokens in Tirupati after the civic authorities declared the entire city as containment zone.

According to temple sources, on July 22, the number of devotees who had darshan was 5,360 which came down to 4,835 on July 23 and further down on July 24 which is 4,255.

It may noted here that in the beginning, TTD as a precautionary measure, provided darshan for 6,000 everyday, including the special entry ticket holders and Sarvadarshan devotees, 3,000 each.

The number of devotees for darshan was increased to 9,000 after TTD hiked daily quota of special entry tickets to 6,000. Later, the TTD increased special entry tickets to 9,000 taking the total number of devotees allowed for darshan daily to 12,000 from June 27 which came down to 9,000 after the stopping of Sarvadarshan tokens on July 21.

The steep fall of pilgrims visiting Tirumala hit hard the livelihood of shopkeepers, hawkers and private transport drivers depending solely on pilgrims visiting Tirumala.

Despite the demand from leaders of political parties and some employee leaders for a halt to darshan keeping in view the surge in Covid cases in the district, particularly in Tirupati, affecting about 200 TTD employees including, priests, prasadam-making Potu workers, employees working in various departments, TTD management decided to continue darshan.