Tirumala reels under heavy pilgrim influx

July 13, 2014 02:20 pm | Updated 02:20 pm IST - TIRUMALA:

The hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara on Saturday reeled under the impact of heavy turnout of pilgrims. The TTD management was caught unawares of the unexpected surge in the crowd and the lack of amenities caused severe inconvenience to devotees. The devotees in the ordinary queues had to wait beyond thirty hours to have darshan of the deity, while it was around sixteen hours for those having Divya Darshan tokens which were issued half-way on the footpath leading to the shrine. To bring the situation under control, the temple administration not only suspended the issuing of the Rs.300 special entry tickets within an hour of opening of the counters but also dispensed with VIP break darshan on Sunday morning. Devotees who could not secure even minimum accommodation either spent their night on pavements along with their families in the inclement weather or in the gardens and on the open premises of TTD establishments. Meanwhile, thousands of devotees preferred spending their night on the premises in front of the main temple complex. TTD JEO K.S. Srinivasa Raju,along with officers spent the night visiting various places supervising arrangements made for devotees.

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