Pilgrim rush peaks at Tirumala due to long weekend
2
Tirupati: Heavy weekend pilgrim rush in Tirumala extended waiting time for darshan at Lord Venkateswara temple to nearly 24 hours on Saturday. Serpentine queue lines became the order of the day with pilgrims forced to stand for hours for darshan, accommodation, tonsure, and even for getting free meals at TTD's Nithya Annaprasadam canteen in the hill town.
The long holiday weekend started with Independence Day on Friday and Sri Krishna Janmashtami on Saturday, leading to the compartments at the twin Q complexes packed to the brim. Pilgrims were forced to wait in three to four kilometres long queues that stretched till the Octopus unit building near Gogarbham dam — one of the four dams that supplies water to residents of Tirumala and falls on the way to Akash Ganga.
Angry scenes were witnessed outside Srivani current booking counters near Annamayya guest house as scores of devotees entered into heated altercations with TTD vigilance and security wing staff after the most sought-after VIP tickets got exhausted in no time due to the heavy rush as early as 4 am on Saturday.
TTD additional EO Ch Venkaiah Chowdary monitored the pilgrim movement throughout the day and directed Annaprasadam staff to ensure continuous supply of free food, drinking water, and other refreshments to devotees waiting in the outside queue lines and inside the Q complexes.
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