In the capacity of Executive Officer Full Additional Charge of TTD, Sri AV Dharma Reddy attended his maiden monthly Dial your Programme was held at Annamaiah Bhavan in Tirumala on Friday where in he answered the queries of 15 pilgrim callers across the Telugu states in detail during this one hour live-in programme. Some excerpts:
When a caller Sri Mastanaiah from Nellore sought clarification over TTD's recent decision on dispensing with the arjitha sevas like Tiruppavada, Astadalapada Padmaradhana and Nijapada Darshanam, the EO explained him with details. He said, there are two types of Sevas in Tirumala which includes Nityakatla and Arjita sevas. Nityakatla sevas are the ones which are being performed everyday on a regular basis. "When some temples across the country closed down even the Garbhalayam during Covid Pandemic, we have continued the Nityakatla sevas which included Suprabhatam, Tomala, Archana, Koluvu, Abhishekam (Fridays) even during this period in the sanctum sanctorum in Ekantam. So Nityakatla sevas have been under vogue since several centuries and performed as per Agamas".
Continuing further he said, "whereas the Arjita Sevas were introduced only a few decades ago to enhance the revenue to TTD coffers. Arjitam-means "Income" and introduced only for the sake of pilgrims. Even during festival days like annual Brahmotsavams, Vasanthotsavams, Pavitrotsavams, Radhasapthami we cancel arjitha sevas giving importance to common devotees darshan.
He further informed the pilgrim caller that after a two-year hiatus due to the impact of Covid, the devotees are now turning out to the temple in large numbers. Usually for Astadalam only 100 Grihastas are allowed for the seva. During that time darshan shall be provided to nearly 6000 common pilgrims and similarly for Tiruppavada only 60 Grihastas will be allowed for Seva and in that time over 9000 devotees shall have darshan of Srivaru. Providing darshan to common pilgrims is our top most priority. So we have dispensed with the Arjitha Sevas like Astadalam, Tiruppavada, Nijapada Darshanam only upto June 30 as the peak summer season vacation rush is under progress till that time", he maintained.
The EO also explained that the TTD has also enabled Darshanam to common devotees even during the early morning sevas so that the devotees shall also experience the Sevas akin to Udayastamana Sevas during their turn of darshan.
Elaborating on dispensing with sevas like Vasanthotsavam, Visesha Puja and Sahasra Kalasabhishekam permanently, the EO said, the decision has been taken in the interest of protecting the processional deity of Sri Malayappa, Sridevi and Bhudevi from erosion upon the advice of Agama advisors, Jeeyangars and Veda Pundits. "All these deities are believed to be tens of thousands of years old. We observe nearly 450 festivals in 365 days. This included snapanam to deities in daily seva like Vasanthotsavam and weekly sevas like Visesha Puja and Sahasra Kalasabhishekam. So the religious experts of TTD suggested that this may affect the original deities in the long run. To protect the deities for the sake of future generations, we have taken the decision", he reiterated.
Responding to a caller Sri Narasimham from Hyderabad, who suggested TTD to limit the darshan to 30-40 thousand pilgrims a day to have hassle-free darshan to everyone, the EO said, "It is indeed an excellent idea and we have even followed the same till April 12. Following the instructions and guidelines of Central and State Governments during the Covid Pandemic, we restricted our numbers to 3000 a day and slowly increased to 60,000. Today we have almost all the categories of darshan with specific time slots so as to enable the devotees hassle-free darshan without much waiting time.
"When we began issuing tokens to the common devotees in Tirupati for Darshan, the people from different places and neighbouring states started to gather at all the token centres in spite of our repeated appeals to them. The accommodation in Tirumala can suffice the needs of 35thousand pilgrims and PACs another 10 thousand plus pilgrims. To avoid a huge congregation of pilgrims, we have allowed them to go for darshan without tokens which paved a way back to the old darshan system. Today we have 90% of the pilgrims having darshan in specific time slots while only 10% have to wait till their turn for darshan", he added.
A pilgrim caller Sri Jogi Reddy from Guntur sought the EO to telecast the Kalyanotsavam and Unjal Sevas of Tiruchanoor even on Saturdays and Sundays to which Sri Dharma Reddy said, with SVBC gaining immense popularity with its Dharmic activities in the last two years, the programme slots have become very tight. As we also have to relay the Kalyanams of other temples, we will pursue the possibility of telecasting the sevas', he added.
One Sri Venkat from Kakinada brought to the notice of EO about the multiple seva bookings on a single ID in online lucky dip system to which the EO said the issue will be verified and sorted out soon.
Another caller Smt Anuradha from Tanuku sought EO whether they will get an opportunity to perform in Tirumala to which the EO said, the TTD has stalled cultural troupes following Covid Pandemic in the last two years. As things are now turning to normalcy, henceforth they will get a chance to perform.
EO also attended the calls of the pilgrim callers Sri Narayana Reddy from East Godavari, Vijayendra from Hindupur, Smt Bhavana from Visakhapatnam, Smt Suchitra from Hyderabad, Sri Ramesh from West Godavari.
JEOs Smt Sada Bhargavi, Sri Veerabrahmam, CVSO Sri Narasimha Kishore, CE Sri Nageswara Rao, SE 2 Sri Jagadeeshwar Reddy and other senior officers were also present.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.JPG)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.JPG)