Pilgrim rush unabated in Tirumala

Tirupati: Pilgrim rush in Tirumala remained unabated, resulting in devotees having to wait for 12-14 hours to have darshan of Lord. Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) is struggling hard to cope with the continuing influx of pilgrims, while protocol VIP visits including that of MLAs and top government officials though less in number are adding more to the woes of the temple authorities.

On Saturday, a record number of 1.01 lakh pilgrims had darshan and on Sunday 99,000 took darshan, taking the total to two lakh in two days, which is highest in the recent times. Devotees including Sarva Darshan and Divya Darshan (foot path pilgrims) were forced to wait outside the queue complexes as they were full to the brim with the devotees resulting in the queue line extending beyond the massive complexes.

The TTD on its part indefinitely cancelled break darshan, darshan against recommendation letters and also restricted the protocol VIPs darshan time to the minimum possible in an effort to bring down the waiting time for the common pilgrims.
The pilgrim rush would likely continue till June first week as people, who are visiting Tirumala to offer prayers to the Lord keen on completing their pilgrimage before the start of schools in June. “This was the main reason for the pilgrim influx, since May last week,” temple sources said.

Another laudable step by TTD to ease the stress of devotees waiting for long hours in the queue lines was providing refreshments like, water, milk, coffee etc. round the clock through Srivari Sevakulu volunteers. More than three thousand volunteers, who were deployed at all focal points including queue lines both inside and outside the queue complex, in the temple, at Prasadam counters, tonsure centre (Kalyanakatta) etc.

Meanwhile, TTD EO AK Singhal inspected the queue complexes and also the queue lines in Narayanagiri Gardens area. After some pilgrim in the compartments complained about no refreshments in the morning, EO pulled up catering department officials for the lapse. He directed senior officials to inspect compartments on hourly basis.

The donations from the devotees to TTD also significantly increased in the last two days. The donation received on Saturday and Sunday includes Rs 19.64 lakh to SV Anna Prasadam trust, SV Pranadanam Trust Rs 11 lakh, SV Sarvashreya Trust 11 lakh and the remaining to the trusts of Gosamrakshana, Sri Srinivasa Sankara Nethralaya and BIRRD.