By Express News Service - TIRUMALA
Published: 02nd February 2014 12:01 PM
Last Updated: 02nd February 2014 12:01 PM
The TTD has decided to provide the Lord’s darshan to local devotees on Tuesdays and it will be taking it up on a pilot basis from February 4. However, the move comes with a rider: you will have to produce your Aadhaar card to get darshan tokens!
TTD joint executive officer KS Srinivasa Raju said, “We will issue 1,000 darshan tokens to local devotees at the TTD’s Mahati Auditorium on Sunday and will allow them for darshan on Tuesday. Later, we will submit a report to the TTD EO on the procedure. Next, we will increase the number of tickets to 5,000 as part of the trial run and will submit another report to the EO for taking a final decision on the number of local devotees to be allowed for darshan on Tuesdays.” All the local devotees should come with their Aadhaar cards for taking tokens, he said.
The decision flies in the face of the Central government’s recent decision to put on hold the Aadhaar link to the supply of subsidised cooking gas cylinders. Besides, the courts have made it clear that benefits of welfare cannot be tied up with Aadhaar cards. As such, linking the Lord’s darshan to Aadhaar card is sure to draw flak.However, the JEO claimed, “As the motto of the TTD is to provide darshan to everyone, we have extended the opportunity for all the locals to have darshan of Lord Venkateswara and there is every need for restricting repetitions.”
After providing darshan to all in a systematic manner, we can allow repetition, said a TTD official, who credited the decision to the chairman K Bapiraju.
The population of Tirupati is around 3 lakh and as the TTD will allow 5,000 devotees on every Tuesday, it will take nearly a year for all the locals to get a darshan. The assessment of the pilgrims arriving to Tirumala during the last two years shows that there has been a decline in the number of pilgrims visiting the hill shrine. The number of pilgrims stood at a record low during the annual Brahmotsavams in 2013 too.
Taking these facts into consideration, the TTD seems to have taken the decision to fulfill the long-pending demand of the local people. Though, the officials intend to provide darshan on the first Tuesday of every month, there is a demand for implementing the same on all Tuesdays.