TIRUPATI: Devotees in Tirumala are suffering with the new amendments regarding the rooms. The grace period is completely reduced from one hour to zero minutes. The pilgrim has now to pay a day’s rent, in case of vacating the room even a minute later.
Earlier there was a grace time of one hour to vacate the room, this grace time was been cancelled by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams a week ago. The devotees are furious with the new system.
The problem the devotees are facing is that they have to search for their rooms after they receive the receipt. The search-time itself is more than an hour.
K. Ramana Murthy a devotee from Kakinada said, “I have paid an extra day’s rent for using the room for just an additional 5 minutes. They had not informed me about the new rule at the time of booking. Searching the room itself is very difficult. It took me more than an hour to find the room allotted.”
P. Hanumanth Rao a devotee from Bangalore said, “When I booked the room they made me wait for half-an-hour while they cleaned it. But when I vacated just a minute late why did they charge me a day’s tariff extra? They should refund the extra day’s charge,” he said.
An official from TTD on condition of anonymity said, “Grace period helps the pilgrims who are vacating but the pilgrims who are waiting for rooms are on the receiving end. Some devotees delay their vacating keeping in mind the one-hour grace period. The one hour is precious during the Brahmotsavam as many of the pilgrims suffer when they do not get the rooms.”
“The allotment will not be given until the room is vacated. With the new rule the rooms will be handed over at the correct time, so now we can provide the rooms earlier to the thousands of pilgrims who are standing in the queue,” the official said.
