Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Executive Officer A.V. Dharma Reddy said that logistics are being worked out for the resumption of Slotted Sarva Darshan (SSD) tokens after the summer vacations when there will be a decrease in the pilgrim crowd.
Anchoring the Dial TTD EO public interactive programme on Friday, he said the issuance of SSD tokens, particularly on crowded days, always proved to be a challenging task with the darshan slots jumping over to the next day and pilgrims resorting to protests when they are asked to stay back in Tirupati. Likewise, if they are allowed to travel up to the town without any tokens they are again subjected to difficulties as the waiting time for darshan stretches beyond 15 to 20 hours.
Even though, several alternatives like organising of local temple visits and creation of additional infrastructure facilities for their stay in Tirupati are being thought of, nothing meaningful can be achieved as long as they are not enabled to book their slots from at their homes on par with devotees arriving with special entry online darshan tokens.
He attributed the reasons to the alleged paucity in providing of cottages under the current booking system (on day-to-day basis) across the counters to the allocation of more than 50% of available accommodation for the benefit of online devotees coupled with the placing of over 800 cottages under repairs.
Eleven out of 24 callers, who took part in the programme, congratulated Mr. Reddy on his elevation as Executive Officer and also recalled his sincere efforts in meeting the requirements of devotees during the current summer vacations when the crowd is at its peak.
Mr. Dharma Reddy said that the seva tickets for the three-day annual Jyestabhishekam scheduled to commence from Sunday is pegged at ₹400 each and will be made available to devotees under the current booking system a day in advance at the CRO counters on production of aadhaar card and biometric impressions.
