The temple town of Tirumala is virtually fortified and converted into a citadel ahead of the Navaratri Brahmotsavams scheduled to begin on Wednesday.
By deploying 2616 cops, including three Additional Superintendents, 33 Deputy Superintendents, 82 Circle Inspectors, 215 Sub-Inspectors, 556 ASI/head constables, 1100 constables, 483 home guards and 473 special party police, the department has literally converted the hill town into a citadel, in view of the heavy rush anticipated for the second Brahmotsavam.
All of them have been roped in from Tirupati, Nellore, Anantapuram, Kurnool, Kadapa and Prakasam districts, besides from the APSP and the Police Training Colleges. These apart, an additional 994 men will be deputed for the ‘Garuda Seva’ conducted on the fifth day of the nine-day fete, considered the magnum opus and hence the major crowd-puller.
The department has taken up combing on the hills, especially the forest abutting the routes for a distance of 3 km on either side of the ghat roads. Similarly, cops and cranes have been deployed all along the serpentine ghat roads to curtail traffic snarls. The surveillance area has been divided into 40 sectors, each to be manned by a DSP cadre official. “Every pilgrim will be frisked either with hand-held or door frame metal detector, before entering the barricaded gallery around the Mada Streets”, said Superintendent of Police (Tirupati Urban) Gopinath Jatti on Monday.
Fifteen “pilgrim police centres” have been set up in Tirupati downhill and Tirumala to guide pilgrims to their destinations and people proficient in various languages are made to man the counters round the clock. Two-wheelers will not be allowed on the ghat roads from Oct 17 midnight to 2 pm on Oct 19, in view of the Garuda Seva.
