Joint and Unanimous Decisions for the Betterment of TTD and Pilgrims - TTD Chairman

Condemning the rumours on Social Media that there is a wide gap between TTD Chairman and EO, TTD Chairman Sri BR Naidu appealed to the devotees not to carry away by this false propaganda on Tirumala.

Addressing media persons in a joint press meet organised at Annamaiah Bhavan in Tirumala on Monday, the Chairman said the tragic incident occurred on January 8 truly heart rending and the entire world was shocked at the mishap.

Adding further he said, but the reports that the incident took place due to lack of coordination between TTD board and officials was totally untrue. We are moving forward with everyone's coordination.

The Chairman said ''except for that stampede incident, we have made all the arrangements for the devotees to have a comfortable darshan through Vaikuntha Dwaram for ten days from January 10-19. Even we have immediately offered proper medication. Ex-gratia has also been distributed to many of them by me and by our team of board members and the remaining will be completed in a couple of days. And for those who recovered were also provided a hassle-free Vaikuntha Dwara Darshanam. They were sent back to their respective home turfs by TTD transportation. The devotees also expressed immense happiness and thanked the Honourable CM of AP and TTD for the arrangements. But some social media platforms are propagating against TTD and hurting the sentiments of devotees which is not at all correct", he maintained.  

TTD EO Sri J Syamala Rao said, in the last six months span, many pilgrim initiatives have been taken which were cheered by the devotees across the globe. We have enhanced the taste of Laddus, Annaprasadams, quality of ghee, over 40 thousand brokers were removed online, vision document on Master plan of Tirumala and Tiruchanoor are underway and many more for the benefit of devotees as well as the institution.

Even for Vaikuntha Dwara Darshan tokens system also a lot of exercise has been carried out. Multiple times inspections ,meetings were conducted and we have discussed in length all the arrangements. TTD jurisdiction is limited to Tirumala to which it is completely our responsibility. 

In Tirupati, the administration, law and order are under the control of the District Collector and SP respectively.

But even while making arrangements in ZP schools in Tirupati, TTD has discussed with the district collector and SP and took their directives for making necessary arrangements of barricading, erecting queue lines, light and other arrangements. We have coordinated with them. But as far as crowd management is concerned it lies with the police. And the unfortunate incident happened due to some protocol issues. An investigation is underway. The judicial inquiry will bring to the fore the exact reason for the mishap", he observed.

As per the orders of AP CM, we have taken many steps without causing any trouble to the devotees. We are also contemplating using technology and co-ordinating with the district administration, SP for a hassle free execution of events in future, he maintained.

Briefing media the Additional EO Sri Ch Venkaiah Chowdary said, to bring more transparency in the system, an Institutional Audit was also carried out to find out technical issues and process issues in the administration, which has given fruitful results. For streamlining the entire accommodation, donor system, darshan we have invited best brains in the country who have suggested us on Block Technology, Queue line management through AI, Solid Waste Management, addressing public grievances using technology and any others.

In the last few months, we have brought reforms in the distribution of Annaprasadam. Earlier only 8000 pilgrims used to be served Annaprasadam while it has gone to 35000 per day now in Compartments. Even the waiting hours of the pilgrims have been reduced to 6-8 hours while the VIP break also we are completing within 3hours. A Feedback Register was also placed inside the temple. And none of the pilgrims have complained so far which shows how we revamped the system in a pilgrim-friendly manner.

Many such initiatives are under offing and our intention is to reduce Human Intervention and give more transparent services to the scores of the pilgrims coming to Tirumala, he added.

Temple DyEO Sri Lokanatham, VGO Sri Surendra were also present.