TIRUMALA:
The Andhra Pradesh endowments department has claimed that the darshan allowed
on the basis of VIP recommendation letters at the Tirumala temple has been
greatly reduced. In all, the number of devotees availing the VIP break darshan
per day has come down from about 5,000 to 1,000, said endowments minister P
Manikyala Rao.
"We want to reduce the number of devotees availing the darshan with the help of VIP recommendation letters. Towards that end, we have increased the quota of the Rs 300 online tickets from 18,000 to 20,000 per day.The TTD board permitting, we want to completely do away with the darshan managed through the VIP recommendation letters," the minister told TOI.
"We want to reduce the number of devotees availing the darshan with the help of VIP recommendation letters. Towards that end, we have increased the quota of the Rs 300 online tickets from 18,000 to 20,000 per day.The TTD board permitting, we want to completely do away with the darshan managed through the VIP recommendation letters," the minister told TOI.
Though a maximum of 1,200 persons are supposed to be granted VIP break darshan
twice daily, their number goes up to 3,0004,000 a day because of the
recommendation letters brought by the devotees.And during the VIP break
darshan, which in these cases extends up to about four hours, the general
darshan is suspended. For every one hour of VIP break darshan, about 5,000
common devotees are denied darshan.
Keeping all this in mind, the TDP government is attempting to streamline the
VIP darshan system, a tough task considering that minis ters, elected
representatives, members of the judiciary and bureaucrats, among others, insist
on a quick darshan that is possible only through the VIP route.
The norms of the TTD specify that the VIP darshan can be accorded to
MPsMLAsministers chief ministersgovernors judges of AP high courtdistrict
judges and IAS officers of the AP cadre. Apart from these, film personalities,
industrialists, corporate honchos and sportspersons as well as those who donate
more than Rs 1 crore to the temple are also treated as VIPs. According to TTD
sources, what compounds the problem is the fact that the VIPs are accompanied
by several people.
The demands to prune the entire VIP list to 1,500 and do away with the
discretionary VIP quota increased after the TTD faced massive public outcry
over the increased VIP darshan during the tenure of Kanumuri Bapiraju as
chairman. The endowments minister may have made a beginning, but it remains to
be seen whether he would be able to get rid of the VIP break darshan
altogether.
YSR Congress hits out at
TTD over heritage outlet at Tirumala
The YSR Congress on Wednesday charged that the TDP government and TTD specified
authority have sanctioned the opening of a Heritage Foods outlet at Tirumala.
Addressing the media, YSR Congress Chandragiri MLA Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy
said, "The TDP government gave sanction for setting up a Heritage Foods
parlour at Tirumala and the same came up about a month ago. This is a blatant
misuse of power as it is well known that Heritage is owned by the Chandrababu
Naidu family.Moreover, Heritage has several egg-based items and the same is
being sold in violation of rules," he said. However, TTD sources said the
Heritage milk parlour was one among many milk outlets at the shrine and that
there was no question of eggbased items being sold there.
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