TIRUPATI
: A heavy influx of pilgrims led to angry scenes and chaos at the sacred abode of
Lord Venkateswara
, a day ahead of the
Vaikunta Ekadasi
festival at
Tirumala
on Friday.
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams announced the suspension of the issuance of slotted Sarva darshan tokens on Friday, instructing devotees to join the queue lines directly for the day.
In addition, the Tirupati trust made a parallel announcement, stating that only devotees with a valid darshan ticket would be allowed to visit Tirumala during the 10-day Vaikunta Ekadasi festival period, between December 23-January 1st.
Based on TTD's announcement, when scores of devotees reached Tirumala and tried to enter the queue lines and the Vaikuntam Q complex compartments, they were prevented by the local police and the
TTD
vigilance and security staff on the pretext that the Q lines and compartments were already full.
Several devotees entered into heated altercation with the TTD staff and chaos prevailed for quite a while near the ATC circle and other places at Tirumala on Friday morning.
Meanwhile, TTD began the issuance of more than 4 lakh Vaikunta Ekadasi 10 day slot darshan tokens to the devotees at 90 plus counters across nine different locations in Tirupati on Friday.
Serpentine queue lines were seen at almost all these counters throughout the day.
Amidst complaints that certain elements were forcing the counter staff to issue darshan tokens without the mandatory facial image of the devotees, TTD sources warned of stringent action against such discrepancies.
According to TTD sources, about 1.75 lakh darshan tokens were issued to the devotees by 6 pm on Friday and the darshan slot booking underway pertained to December 27th.
English (US) ·