Repair Works of Tirumala Rest Houses Will be Completed in a Years Time - TTD EO

Tirumala, 7 Feb. 20: TTD has taken up repair works of various rest houses in Tirumala at a cost of around Rs.110crore which will be completed in a year's time, said TTD EO Sri Anil Kumar Singhal.

He said this while he was answering a pilgrim caller Sri Prasad from Hyderabad, during the Monthly Dial your EO programme on Friday at Annamaiah Bhavan in Tirumala, who brought to the notice of EO about the leakages in a rest house at Tirumala adjacent to CRO while his stay on January 8. The EO said, TTD has already commenced the repair and renovation works of Rest Houses at various areas in Tirumala and will be completed in a year's time.

When callers Sri Appanna from Visakhapatnam and Smt Venkataramanamma from Khammam sought EO to consider subsidy laddus for pilgrims. The EO replied to them, earlier one free laddu was used to be issued only to foot walkers who are trekking Tirumala hills. But now, the TTD board has extended one free laddu facility to all the pilgrims who are having darshan of Lord Venkateswara. "Earlier, the devotees used to approach touts or VIP recommendation letters for additional laddus which lead to huge black marketing. Now, any devotee can get any number of laddus on payment of Rs.50 per laddu without depending on anybody, he explained.

Sri Srinivas from Tenali sought EO to introduce a programme in SVBC, "Annamaiah Paata Prati Vaari Nota" to popularize Annamaiah songs among devotees, to which the EO answered that the possibilities will be discussed with the concerned officers.

When an Octogenarian pilgrim, Sri Srinivasan from Bengaluru sought EO to send aged pilgrims a little closure to Lord for darshan as they could not able to see Him properly due to poor sight, the EO replied the devotee, that he would love to do that, if the situation provides him an opportunity. "But due to day by day increase in pilgrim rush to Tirumala, there is no possibility of sending the pilgrims beyond the point of Jaya-Vijaya", he maintained.

Sri Vasu from Hyderabad sought EO to introduce wheelchair and stretcher facility for the aged and disabled devotees inside the temple to which EO replied him that there is no possibility to allow such facilities as per tradition. However, he said, the Srivari Seva volunteers are being deployed to render services to aged and disabled pilgirms.

Another pilgrim caller Smt Satyavati from Bengaluru suggested EO that during Sahasra Deepalanakara Seva, two Annamacharya Sankeertans and two Dasa Padagalu will be rendered. But as a majority of pilgrims are well versed with Govinda Namas, it may also be introduced so that the devotees will also chant the divine names, she added. While appreciating the suggestion, the EO said he will discuss with the concerned.

Sri Delhi Babu from Chennai sought EO to increase footpath walkers darshan tokens to which EO suggested him to take Sarva Darshan tokens if the Divya Darshan tokens quota for the day gets exhausted some times due to heavy pilgrim rush by staying in Tirupati.

A devotee from Chittoor Sri Jalagandan brought to the notice of EO that some of the pilgrims are walking along four Mada streets wearing chappals and it needs to be addressed. Answering him, the EO said, though the Srivari sevaks are deployed exclusively to guide pilgrims, some of the devotees are not following either knowingly or unknowingly. We will enhance the awareness measures", he said.

Sri Srikanth from Karimnagar complained EO about the menace of private vehicles at Srinivasam Rest House in Tirupati in vehicle parking area to which EO said, the authorities concerned will be directed to address the issue immediately.

DO NOT LOG ONTO FAKE WEBSITES-EO APPEALS DEVOTEES

TTD EO Sri Anil Kumar Singhal also cautioned devotees about the predominance of fake darshan and accommodation websites and urged them only log on to TTD official website tirupatibalaji.ap.gov.in for booking darshan and accommodation. 'When once the quota of darshan or seva tickets are accommodation are completed in our website, some of the devotees are logging into other fake websites and are getting cheated. We have been receiving large number of complaints on this issue in our call centre. I appeal to devotees not to approach such fake websites and our Vigilance wing has identified and already lodged criminal cases against such websites", he asserted.

CE Sri Ramachandra Reddy, Additional CVSO Sri Shiva Kumar Reddy, SE II Sri Nageswara Rao, SE Electrical Sri Venkateswarulu, Health Officer Dr RR Reddy, HDPP Chief Sri Rajagopalan, VGO Sri Manohar, DyEOs Sri Balaji, Sri Nagaraja, Sri Damodaram, Sri Selvam and others were also present.