Tirumala: Condemning rumours on social media that there is a wide gap between him and Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Executive Officer J Shyamala Rao, TTD Chairman BR Naidu appealed to the devotees not to carry away by the false propaganda on Tirumala.
Addressing a joint press meet organised at Annamaiah Bhavan in Tirumala on Monday, the Chairman said the tragic incident occurred on January 8 truly heart rending and the entire world was shocked at the mishap.
Adding further he said, the reports that the incident took place due to lack of coordination between TTD board and officials was totally untrue. “We are moving forward with everyone's coordination,” he clarified.
The Chairman said except for that stampede incident, all the arrangements were made for the devotees to have a comfortable darshan through Vaikuntha Dwaram for ten days from January 10-19. “We have immediately offered proper medication. Ex-gratia has also been distributed to many of them by me and by our team of board members and the remaining will be completed in a couple of days. And for those who recovered were also provided a hassle free Vaikuntha Dwara Darshanam. They were sent back to their respective home turfs by TTD transportation,” he explained.
The devotees also expressed immense happiness and thanked the Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and TTD for the arrangements. But some social media platforms are propagating against TTD and hurting the sentiments of devotees which is not at all correct, he maintained.
TTD EO Syamala Rao said, in the last six months span, many pilgrim initiatives have been taken which were cheered by the devotees across the globe. “We have enhanced the taste of laddus, annaprasadams, quality of ghee, over 40 thousand brokers were removed online, vision document on master plan of Tirumala and Tiruchanoor are underway and many more for the benefit of devotees as well as the institution,” he said.
Even for the Vaikuntha Dwara Darshan tokens system, a lot of exercise has been carried out. Multiple inspections and meetings were conducted and discussed in length all the arrangements. The TTD jurisdiction is limited to Tirumala to which it is completely its responsibility.
In Tirupati, the administration, law and order are under the control of district collector and Superintendent of Police (SP) respectively. But even while making arrangements in ZP schools in Tirupati, the TTD has discussed with the district Collector and SP and taken their directives for making necessary arrangements of barricading, erecting queue lines, light and other arrangements.
“We have coordinated with them. But as far crowd management is concerned it lies with the police and the unfortunate incident happened due to some protocol issues. An investigation is underway. The judicial inquiry will bring to the fore the exact reason for the mishap”, he observed.
As per the orders of Naidu, the TTD has taken many steps without causing any trouble to the devotees. “We are also contemplating using technology and co-ordinating with the district administration, SP for a hassle free execution of events in future,” he maintained.
Briefing media, Additional EO Ch Venkaiah Chowdary said, to bring more transparency in the system, institutional audit was also carried out to find out technical issues and process issues in the administration, which has given fruitful results. For streamlining the entire accommodation, donor system, darshan, the TTD invited the best brains in the country who have suggested block technology, queue management through AI, solid waste management, addressing public grievances using technology and many other initiatives.
In the last few months, the TTD brought reforms in the distribution of annaprasadam. Earlier, only 8000 pilgrims used to be served annaprasadam while it has gone to 35000 per day now in compartments. Even the waiting hours of the pilgrims have been reduced to 6-8 hours while the VIP break darshan is completing within three hours.
A feedback register was also placed inside the temple. And none of the pilgrims have complained so far which shows how the TTD has revamped the system in a pilgrim-friendly manner. Many such initiatives are underway and the TTD’s intention is to reduce human intervention and give more transparent services to the scores of the pilgrims coming to Tirumala, he added.
