TTD Executive Officer A.V. Dharma Reddy said that two new proposals would be placed before the board of trustees for taking a decision with regard to the resumption of the Slotted Sarva Darshan (SSD) system.
There is a demand from various quarters of the pilgrim fraternity for the resumption of the SSD tokens which will help them report at the Vaikuntam complex at a fixed time and reduce waiting hours in the darshan lines.
At present, devotees are allowed directly for darshan through the Vaikuntam-II complex.
Speaking to the media after a pilgrim interactive session here on Friday, Mr. Reddy said that the TTD board was aware of the hardships faced by devotees arriving without darshan tickets and would take a final call on the issue during its meeting scheduled on Monday (July 11).
Accommodation
He appealed to the devotees to either book their accommodation online or avail it at Tirupati at the various TTD-run guest houses or prefer private establishments instead of subjecting themselves to difficulties after reaching Tirumala. There was a paucity of accommodation on the hill due to non-availability of land. While those booking online were being instantly provided accommodation the rest were being asked to enroll their names under the current booking system and accommodated subject to the vacancies arising out of the situation which depended on the pilgrim turnout, he said.
“There is an overwhelming response to various religious programmes aired on TTD’s SV Bhakti Channel and efforts are on to further improve their quality,” he said.
In reply to a question, he said that the TTD was providing about 750 online tokens for Anga Pradakshinam every day. “However, it has been found that on several occasions about 350-400 tokens remained unutilised. Therefore, it has been decided to issue the unutilised tokens in the offline mode across the counters on a day-to-day basis.”
In reply to another question, he said that the TTD would develop the newly constructed Vakula Matha temple in Perur which had been witnessing a steady increase in the pilgrim turnout.
