It is testing time for the top officials of the TTD management in the aftermath of the change of guard in the state.
With the Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who is an ardent devotee of Lord Venkateswara, repeatedly issuing diktats that he will not tolerate any kind of misdemeanour, the management is leaving no stone unturned in moving closer to the ordinary devotees.
In one such initiative the officials manning the Tirumala temple decided to restrict the darshan tickets being issued under the VIP quota and allocate the saved darshan hours for the benefit of pilgrims. The officials who earlier issued more than 2,500 darshan tickets on an average everyday confined the number to a little over 1,000 during the past couple of days.
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The result was that the temple management was left with an additional darshan hour on all the days of the trial period which nevertheless proved a blessing in disguise for the common devotee.
The irony is that while it was thought that things were moving smoothly and in the right direction the officials were left flabbergasted with the unforeseen resistance from the ruling party legislators.
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Here it may be mentioned that the ex-Executive Officer of the TTD N. Ramesh Kumar (currently the Principal Secretary to the Governor) was the only successful officer who could drastically contain the VIP quota. Never did the tally cross the double-digit mark on any day during his two-year stint.
Under the circumstances whether the management remains intractable on its stand or wilt under the growing political pressure remains to be seen.