Anantapur: A plastic-free Tirumala campaign would be launched on Saturday in a joint effort by employees of TTD, district administration, police and the TMC on May 13.
Both the ghats and footpaths would form part of the mass-clearning exercise. Former Chief Justice of India, Justice (rtd) NV Ramana, would attend the event, said TTD EO, Dharma Reddy.
A Sundara Tirumala-Suddha Tirumala mass cleaning programme had earlier been taken up by TTD when some 1,600 sanitary workers went on a lighting strike. This set an example. Every day, nearly 500 employees along with Srivari Sevaks voluntarily took part in the mass cleaning programme.
Speaking to the media after the ‘Dial Your EO programme’ at Annamaiah Bhavan in Tirumala, the EO explained that under the Sundara Tirumala-Suddha Tirumala programme, about 6000 employees and nearly 3000 srivari sevaks voluntarily participated in the cleaning works for the last 12 days.
"On Saturday, in the mass ‘Plastic-Free Tirumala’ programme, the TTD employees, district administration and police and the corporation departments would take part and express their solidarity to the TTD drive.
The district collector, SP, joint collector, Swachandhra Pradesh corporation adviser, commissioner, judges and others would take part in the programme.
“We have divided the up and down ghats and both the footpath routes into various sectors and deployed in-charge officials for each sector. In the up ghat, there would be 15 supporting staff for cleaning every sector and the down ghat will have 30.
The TTD EO advised the devotees to be cautious against fake websites while booking Darshan, Accommodation and Donation services. The EO attended to calls from 31 pilgrims from across the country during the programme held at Annamaiah Bhavan in Tirumala. Earlier, he briefed the media on the important development activities and upcoming religious events for the information of the global devotees.
Devotees shall have to book their darshan or accommodation or donation only through TTD official website, tirupatibalaji.ap.
If they come across any fraudulent website, this may be informed to the call centre on 155257.
