Ensure hygiene hotels, eateries in Tirumala says TTD Additional EO A V Dharma Reddy

Tirumala: In an effort to enhance the precautionary measures against Covid, TTD Additional Executive Officer A V Dharma Reddy on Monday held a meeting with owners of hotels and operators of eateries, shopkeepers and others in Tirumala and stressed them to ensure clean and sanitised premises for the safety of visiting devotees and employees.

Making it clear that the hotel operators should display the tariff of items being provided, he insisted on issuing computerised billing and also allow digital payments by the customers to promote cashless transactions and also accountability on the part of hoteliers to avoid complaints.

This apart, he said all the food outlets must and should have emergency fire equipment for safety and also ensure segregation of waste into dry and wet for effective waste management by the health authorities on the hills.

In this connection, the TTD senior official told the owners not to sub-lease their enterprise and only the original lease alone would be allowed by the TTD authorities to run it - be it a hotel, shop or any other commercial outlets in Tirumala.

He said soon TTD will provide photo ID cards for all licence holders after total screening all of them in Tirumala to prevent unauthorised sub-lease or even sale of allotted shops or houses in Balaji Nagar area in the hills where it was alleged that some houses were under unauthorised enjoyment of some people.

In addition to screening and issuing of ID cards to licence holders, Reddy said the details of local residents of Tirumala to check any authorised persons staying or doing business on the hills.

Responding to the locals seeking separate entry point at the toll gate in Alipiri, he said the locals will be facilitated with a separate line at Alipiri checkpoint so that there will be no delay in allowing them to proceed to Tirumala as they will not clubbed along with pilgrims arriving from various places.

In the absence of a separate line at the toll gate checking point, the locals who are traveling daily on the ghat road were forced to wait for more time particularly during weekends, holidays and in summer during which the pilgrim rush will be high.

'Keep cottages neat, tidy'

Tirumala: TTD Additional Executive Officer A V Dharma Reddy directed the officials to keep cottages neat and tidy.

Inspecting cottages near Padmavati Rest House area on Monday, he said a checklist should be maintained at each cottage and officials should check civil and

electrical works and cleanliness before allotment to pilgrims. He said all repairs must be completed frequently through AMC (annual maintenance contracts).

During his inspection, he checked the condition of sofas, Teapoys,

toilets in the cottages wherein some he noticed the sofa torn and bathroom not tidy and suggested to take repairs with no delay and keep bathrooms aromatic and cottages ever clean.

He also directed the officials to plug leakages in the rooms to avoid water wastage and also cut tree branching protruding into rooms and also develop gardens around cottages to give a green touch. Reception DyEOs Lokanatham, Bhaskar, Health Officer Dr Sunil, DFO Chandrasekhar, Garden Deputy Director Srinivasulu, EEs Srihari, Mallikarjun Prasad and others were present.