Patriotic fervour marked the 77th Independence Day Celebrations at Tirumala, on Tuesday. The town wore a festive look as devotees carried national flags in their hands and sported tricolour badges on their shirts/kurtas. Overcoming regional and linguistic barriers, they greeted each other by saying ‘Vandemataram’ and ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’.
Meanwhile, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Executive Officer A.V. Dharma Reddy hoisted the National flag at his Gokulam office. Speaking on the occasion, he urged the officials and employees to rededicate themselves to the service of the devotees. He said the TTD modernised all the cottages atop the hill town, which were built some forty years back, with ₹120 crore.
The construction of a massive Pilgrim Amenities Complex (PAC) with a budget of over ₹100 crore to accommodate about 10,000 pilgrims is underway. Currency counting and packing machines, in addition to coins segregation machines, shall be purchased soon to make Parakamani (the process of counting of hundi proceeds) easier, he said.
