Mohan, who runs a small grocery at Nemili of Ranipet district in Tamil Nadu, is a worried man as his stay at Tirupati got extended due to non-availability of darshan tokens, which means keeping his business closed for four more days.
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Already away from home for four days, he fears that four more days of business shutdown will make his budget go awry.
Similar are the travails of the devotees who have enthusiastically started off on a holy trek from their native places to have a glimpse of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala, but are forced to stay back for a period longer than they had anticipated.
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Wriggling out of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) is slowly and steadily opening up the shrine to more devotees, but the sudden spurt in inflow has apparently made its plans go haywire. As the number of devotees has far exceeded the daily quota of sarvadarshan tokens, once a day’s limit is exhausted, devotees are being allotted tokens for the subsequent days.
Mr. Mohan is part of a 130-member contingent that set out on foot last Friday at Nemili to reach Tirupati late on Sunday. When they went to Srinivasam complex on Monday to book their sarvadarshan tokens, to their shock, they got their turn on Thursday. “Where will we stay for three days and how can we afford for our stay and food till then?” he wonders.
They had to go back to Pudi village, 18 km south of Tirupati, to stay in a roadside Mandapam built by the TTD for the benefit of such trekkers. With the help of locals, the group is mobilising groceries and vegetables to cook food.
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“How long can we seek help from others? We have travelled more than 100 km on foot and now forced to while away our time like this. The temple officials should find a way out to provide darshan at least to the trekking devotees,” says Kumari, hailing from Pudhukandigai village abutting Nemili.
Devotees forewarned
The TTD has been issuing 15,000 offline sarvadarshan tokens per day since last week. Sensing trouble, the authorities had also cautioned devotees not to swarm up immediately. “In view of the pilgrims’ ordeals, an additional offline quota of 5,000 tokens per day will be issued at Bhudevi complex, Srinivasam complex and Sri Govindaraja choultries,” says TTD Public Relations Officer T. Ravi.
This additional quota may be of use to devotees arriving soon, but Mohan’s contingent will have to wait till Thursday, keeping their fingers crossed.