Tight security arrangements for President's visit to pilgrim city

Tirupati: Unprecedented security arrangements are in place for the visit of President Droupadi Murmu to the pilgrim city slated for Sunday night and Monday. Entire official machinery has been on its toes to make the visit a grand success.

The President reached Tirupati airport from Visakhapatnam at 9.15 pm on Sunday and proceeded to Sri Padmavathi guest house at Tirumala for overnight stay.

President Murmu will reach Sri Varahaswamy temple at 9.30 am on Monday and Sri Vari temple at 9.40 am to worship presiding deities. She will visit Go Mandiram at Alipiri at 11.35 am and reach Sri Padmavathi Mahila Visvavidyalayam (SPMVV) at 11.55 am. There she will visit stalls and interact with women achievers.

The first citizen of India will first visit the Kalamkari stall which is a unique handicraft where the 'Kalam' or pen is used for freehand drawing by using the natural organic materials as colours on sarees and other fabrics. Then, she will proceed to the Pushpa Prasadam stall where the TTD has embarked on making souvenirs and divine images with used dry flowers of Lord Venkateswara in various Sevas.

The stall waste to wealth decorative items using silkworm waste will also be visited by President Murmu along with the SHG livelihood stall where wood carving idols of Gods and decorative items will be exhibited. Later, she will interact with the faculty, students and achievers inside the Indira Priyadarshini auditorium. She will interact with Indian hockey player Rajani who was part of the team that participated in Tokyo Olympics-2016 apart from various other tournaments.

The President will also have a word with woman barber K Radha Devi with whose intervention nearly 1,200 women barbers have been working at TTD and other temples.

She will also interact with Kuchipudi dancer MVSN Durga and Dr A Sridevi who got PhD in Microbiology and currently manufacturing aqua, probiotics feed supplements and bio di-composers of fruit pulp industries. On the occasion, Vice-Chancellor of SPMVV Prof D Jamuna will felicitate the President.

District Collector K Venkataramana Reddy, Joint Collector DK Balaji and other officials visited SPMVV and monitored the arrangements on Sunday. Meanwhile, Anantapur Range DIG M Ravi Prakash and Tirupati SP P Parameswar Reddy held a meeting with police officials who have been drafted for security duties during the President's visit.

They told the officials that every care has to be taken to screen the participants at the President's programmes before allowing them inside. There should be no complacency at any stage during the visit and the entire programme should go on smoothly without any hurdles. They said that heavy security has been arranged all along the route in which the President's convoy will move.