Andhra Pradesh

Low turnout at Tirumala

TIRUPATI: Contrary to expectations that there would be a deluge of people, a relatively low pilgrim turnout marked the New Year’s Day proceedings in the hill temple at Tirumala on Thursday. The TTD was in fact prepared to meet a rush of anything between one lakh and two lakh.

After the initial euphoria when the temple doors were thrown open for ‘dharma darshan’ around 3 a.m., the usual milling crowd that would be seen inside the temple complex and in queue complex was conspicuously missing.

Except for the early part of the day, the queue lines and the temple environs put on a relatively desolate look. One positive fallout of this was that those who turned up for darshan had an unusually hassle-free passage into the temple. This has been the trend for the last five or six years on the New Year’s Day with pilgrims skipping a visit to the temple fearing heavy crowd. The “scare” created by the media about hell breaking loose on that day also is cited as a reason.

The TTD had made elaborate arrangements building up a buffer stock of four lakh laddus and opening special counters. It also set up special counters for sale of the TTD calendars, diaries, audio and video CDs and spiritual publications. Extra queue sheds were put up and special parking lots put in place to ensure a free flow of pilgrims and traffic. The district police administration had deployed additional forces to prevent any untoward incident. Since the crowd receded by noon, sources said that the additional forces were sent back to their destinations. The APSRTC’s additional bus service ferried the pilgrims.

Other TTD temples located in and around Tirupati also were nicely spruced up befitting the occasion. Locals thronged the temples from the crack of dawn. Similar reports have come in from Srikalahasti and Kanipakkam temples.

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