SSD tokens introduced to provide hassle-free darshan: Addl EO

Tirumala: TTD Additional EO AV Dharma Reddy on Wednesday said the TTD has introduced `Time Slotted Sarva Darshan (SSD)' tokens with an aim to provide a hassle-free darshan to devotees on par with VIPs. The senior TTD official held a media conference at Annamaiah Bhavan at Tirumala, a day after a melee at SSD tokens counter at Sri Govindaraja Swamy Satram leaving many pilgrims hurt on Tuesday to explain the measures being taken up by the TTD for the smooth issuing of tokens and also refute charges made by various sections including political party leaders and pilgrims including those who faced lot of inconvenience in the queue lines at the token counters in Tirupati as a damage control exercise.

Reddy said the TTD has introduced SSD tokens in 2016. It was temporarily suspended on April 10th and 11th as tokens were already issued for three days, i.e. waiting time extending to three days. On April 12, the TTD resumed the issuing 35,000 SSD tokens (for darshan on Wednesday) at 6 am in the counters located in three places in Tirupati. During the time of issue of tokens there were only 20,000 devotees for the tokens at the counters. Some devotees in the queue line panicked, causing a pell-mell at the counter, leading to some commotion, he said terming the Tuesday incidents at the token counters as a 'minor incident but blown out of proportion.'

He further said that some vested interests were unnecessarily causing furore against the TTD. In view of the continuous crowds of pilgrims, TTD suspended the issuing of the SSD tokens system for free darshan and allowed all devotees who assembled at the counters to go directly to Tirumala, without tokens, for darshan, he said while explaining the measures promptly taken up by the TTD to tackle the pilgrim influx.

"As we had made required preparations, we could direct all the devotees in Tirupati to Tirumala and then into compartments in the queue complex to wait for darshan,'' he said adding that because of the current situation of heavy crowd, the devotees had to wait in the compartments till their turn for darshan.

But taking advantage of the situation, some vested interests indulged in mud-slinging against the TTD, he said asserting that the TTD was giving priority to common devotees, citing the TTD's decision to suspend VIP break darshan till April 17 to cope with the rush. To those who are pointing fingers at TTD, the Additional EO said TTD has been conducting various Dharmic programmes for the last three years like never before which won global applause. It may be noted here that the heavy rush at the SSD tokens counters resulted in jostling, causing inconvenience to the pilgrims more so women with infants, aged standing in the lines for hours for the tokens on Tuesday drew the attention countrywide and also criticism against TTD. TTD CVSO Narasimha Kishore was also present.