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Gate-crash at Tirumala
Gate-crash at Tirumala, Lord’s darshan at Tirumala, TTD management. Even as groups of TTD staff from the Vaikuntam Complex began to leave for ‘darshan’, security personnel followed them.
- Devotees made to wait for long hours in queues
- Finally, they broke open locks, rushed for darshan
- TTD brass not seen anywhere to mitigate situation
Tirumala: Made to wait for 20 hours for the Lord’s darshan amid stringent restrictions imposed by the TTD on their movements, exasperated pilgrims at Tirumala gave vent to their spleen at TTD and even broke open the locks of the queue complexes 11 and 12 and Vaikuntam Complex I around midnight on Saturday and rushed for the darshan, thereby causing commotion at the temple.
The devotees cried foul and lambasted the TTD management for ‘miserably’ failing to facilitate their ‘darshan’ even after their agonizing wait for hours together. As the most auspicious day of ‘Vaikunta Ekadasi’ was about to end, they grew impatient and raised slogans against the EO and the TTD chairman, demanding that they be allowed inside immediately. Officials of the vigilance department tried to explain the situation to the devotees and urged them to be more patient, but the devotees would have none of it and got into heated arguments with the officers who had to beat a hasty retreat.
Even as groups of TTD staff from the Vaikuntam Complex began to leave for ‘darshan’, security personnel followed them, with ‘jamedars’ in tow. This enraged the waiting devotees to vent their anger by smashing the TV stand and TTD boards in the stand. They also broke free to rush towards the temple as the security personnel remained mute spectators.
Even as TTD officials/staff took a break after ‘Srivari Chakra Snanam’, signaling the end of ‘Vaikunta Ekadasi’ celebrations, pilgrims forcibly moved out of the queue complex of 16 and 17, after breaking the locks, in Vaikuntam II on Sunday morning. This resulted in minor injuries to two persons.
The scene was repeated in compartments 22, 23 and 24 also, as the devotees tried to break the gates.
In the stampede-like scenario, four persons sustained injuries. They refused to be shifted to a hospital, without ‘darshan’. The TTD officials were forced to treat the injured at the spot.
Several devotees were forced to return without having the much-cherished glimpse of the Lord during the auspicious moments. Those who had darshan had to bear with hardships.
The Devasthanam clearly failed this year to facilitate darshan for around 60,000 devotees who descended on the hill shrine. Joint E0 Srinivas Raju, who boasted that TTD would not sell Rs 300 tokens, had to cut a sorry figure when he encountered empty queue lines. To make up for their bungling , TTD resumed the sale of tokens.
The devotees expressed their ire at the miserable failure of the top officials of TTD in providing trouble-free darshan, and for staying away even as the pilgrims were forced to put up with extreme hardships.
