Outgoing TTD EO makes his mark with pro-pilgrim initiatives

Tirupati: The outgoing TTD Executive Officer Dr D Sambasiva Rao has made his mark in TTD administration with several of his pilgrim friendly initiatives winning the appreciation of the devotees of Lord Venkateswara worldwide. In his 28-month long stint as the TTD EO, Rao focused more on improving facilities for common pilgrims to make their Tirumala pilgrimage a hassle free. Foremost among his pilgrim friendly initiatives which had a telling impact on accommodation and darshan was his aggressive drive to promote online system for advance booking of accommodation and darshan in Tirumala.

Highlights:

• Rao promoted online system for advance booking of accommodation and darshan
• EO curtailed black marketing of laddus by ensured sufficient quantity are given to devotees
• Newly appointed TTD EO Anil Singhal is 1993 batch IAS officer and worked as JC for Chittoor
• Instrumental in getting special package to AP and funds for Polavaram project as AP Bhavan’s Resident Commissioner in New Delhi

Thanks to his tireless efforts about fifty per cent of accommodation facility in Tirumala and about 70 per cent of darshan facility including Arjitha sevas were brought under online system enabled thousands of pilgrims avail darshan tickets in advance making their Tirumala pilgrimage a planned one avoiding inconvenience both for accommodation for staying on the hills and darshan of Lord.

The facility to provide sufficient quantity of Laddus along with booking of darshan tickets saw the devotees get the most sought after delicious laddus immediately after darshan without any difficulty. This automatically avoided the pilgrims approaching touts to fulfill their laddu requirement which in turn almost curtailed black marketing of the famous laddu prasadams in Tirumala.

He streamlined the functioning of Potu (temple kitchen) increasing laddu production in a big way to cope with the increased demand from the devotees for laddus. The other initiatives including the construction of separate complexes for Divya Darshan (footpath pilgrims) and Rs 300 special entry ticket holders (Seegra Darshanam) with all facilities required for pilgrims waiting till their darshan time helped to mitigate the problems the pilgrim face while waiting in queue line, earlier.

Rao also earned the name as a tough officer and took effective measures to ensure clean administration and discipline among the employees enhancing their performance. Recently, he introduced ‘two-pillar system’ in the queue complex that successfully enabled the pilgrims to have darshan in 60 to 90 minutes after they were let off from the compartments. This avoided the ordeal of the pilgrims waiting on the long passage of queue complex with no proper facilities like drinking water, fan, sitting arrangement etc. bringing cheers to the devotes more so the aged.

Meanwhile, the newly appointed TTD EO Anil Kumar Singhal also has a good reputation as an honest, efficient and hardworking officer with good administrative experience working in various regions of the erstwhile AP state including in Chittoor as Joint Collector and has good relations with public representatives, colleagues and subordinates. Singhal, who is working as Resident Commissioner at AP Bhavan in New Delhi is transferred and posted as TTD EO
replacing Sambasiva Rao.
An ardent devotee of Lord Venkateswara, Singhal has enough knowledge on Hindu Dharma. Having scored 2nd rank in the Civil Services exam in his first attempt, Singhal opted out of his home state Punjab and joined AP cadre in 1993 batch. He proceeded on Central deputation where he handled sensitive assignments in DoPT and GoI for several years before reverting to cadre in 2014 and subordinates proceeded on Central deputation in 2008.

He was allotted to Telangana cadre after bifurcation of the State, unlike most other officers he asked for a cadre change to contribute to the development of AP. He has been instrumental in effectively pursuing with the centre for getting special package to AP and funds for Polavaram project in addition to a number of other projects and institutes.

By G Sridhar