Initially, only 7,000 devotees will be allowed per day, at the rate of 500 per hour.
Hyderabad: The world’s richest Hindu temple of Lord Balaji atop Tirumala hills in south Andhra opens for devotees from 11 June, albeit to around 90% fewer of them in the past. The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) trust board, which manages the temple, has imposed a bunch of restrictions on those who throng here in tune with the Centre’s guidelines to tackle the Covid-19 menace.
Thanks to the conditions applied due to the pandemic, the devotees will not be offered “theertham,” or “shathagopam” at the sanctum sanctorum and “laddu prasadam”, too, will not be on the precincts. However, the prasadams can be purchased from special counters outside the temple. Devotees above the age of 65 years or below 10 years will not be allowed. “Darshan” ticket is priced at Rs 300 per head.
The temple which nets daily offerings of around Rs 3.75 crore through Hundi collections from around 70,000 pilgrims has been shut for general public from 22 March. However, all formal rituals and pujas were continued by the priests and e-Hundi collections to around Rs 1.50 crore per day were received during the lockdown period. After the Centre’s calibrated decision to open places of worship of all religions from Monday, the TTD, too, braced up to receive the common public from next week. The first three days of the week are reserved only for the TTD employees and the local people, while others would be welcome from Thursday. Initially, only 7,000 devotees will be allowed per day, at the rate of 500 per hour.
“We will be strictly following the guidelines of the Ministry of Home Affairs as far as social distancing and other sanitization measures are concerned. A minimum two meters distance will be maintained in the queue lines and it is estimated to allow only 500 devotees per hour, from 6.30 am to 7.30 pm every day,” TTD executive officer (EO) Anil Singhal told a media conference on Friday. Singhal, a senior IAS officer, flanked by TTD chairman and former MP S.V. Subba Reddy and other members and officers of the trust board, made it clear that utmost care would be taken to see that health and hygiene of devotees would be compromised at the temple or guest houses atop Tirumala hills during their day-long stay. Devotees are allowed for only for 24 hours at Tirumala now.
Of the estimated 7,000 devotees, half of them would be permitted from Andhra Pradesh, while the rest from all over the country. But, the outside devotees will have to obtain permission to enter Andhra Pradesh through its portal, “Spandana”. Booking of slots for “darshan” of the lord doesn’t automatically allow anyone to enter Andhra Pradesh, they will have to get separate permission for that from the web portal, said the EO. Again, the pilgrims would be stopped at Alipiri, foot of the seven hills of Tirumala, for being thermal screened before cleared to travel for a final driving distance of 17 km. The primary purpose of these checks is to see if a person is from a containment zone or tested Covid positive earlier based on the nationwide data bank. Only asymptomatic persons will be allowed for “darshan”. Pilgrims can reach the temple by walk, 7km, too. Located on top of hills at a height of 980 meters from the sea level, 28 sq km area of Tirumala Hills is known for its fresh and cool breeze which many believe has some healing power as it is in the midst of thick Sheshachalam forests connecting AP-Tamil Nadu–Karnataka borders.
TTD top brass made it clear that VIP darshan slots will not be entertained for others, except the office holders. Singhal appealed to the VIPs not to issue recommendation letters for others for darshan till the situation returns to normalcy. “We will monitor and review the situation regularly, and improve things in the days to come and may allow more devotees per day,” he said. The Andhra Pradesh government has ordered all other major temples like Kanaka Durga Devasthanms in Vijayawada and Simhachalam Narasimhna Swamy Alayam in Visakhapatnam, too, from Monday.
In Telangana, too, all major Hindu temples will be opened from Monday. Famous Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple at Yadagiri Gutta will be opened for devotees from 8 June. All major mosques, churches and gurudwaras, too, would be allowed to function normally from Monday and arrangements are being reviewed for the safety of devotees. Catholic churches in Hyderabad and Secunderabad have announced that the public can offer regular prayers from next week. Similarly, major mosques in Hyderabad are gearing for first Friday prayers on 12 June.