On New Year, Tirumala turns into a war zone

Jan 02 2015 : The Times of India (Chennai)

On New Year, Tirumala turns into a war zone

Tirumala: TIMES NEWS NETWORK





A top Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) official was mobbed by angry devotees and dozens were injured here during a nearstampede on Thursday , a rare occasion when Vaikuntha Ekadasi occurred on New Year's day . With more than two lakh people converging on the hill shrine, the 12,000-strong TTD staff, police and volunteers struggled to manage the crowd. Devotees into arguments with TTD staff at several places. It is estimated that of the 2.1 lakh devotees who thronged the temple for the oc casion only 80,000 could get darshan.

Joint executive officer K Sreenivasa Raju was virtually gheraoed by families of re tired TTD employees and police after they were not allowed special darshan.

Raising slogans, the mob threatened the JEO, and po licemen had to escort him out.“It was like war zone. I returned as I sensed that I would not get darshan even after two days,“ B Bhanu Kiran, a devotee from Kurnool said. “There are several people like me who are leaving as the number of visiting pilgrims is only growing by the day,“ he added.

Trouble began around 4am when the VIP `break darshan' was underway . As TTD authorities restricted the entry of devotees standing outside the queue complex, some of them tried to stop VIP vehicles near the Lepakshi circle.“Why only darshan for them, not for us,“ demanded one de votee. The situation got worse after the devotees started joining the queue by breaking the barricades and climbing trees. All careful preparations went out of hand with a near pandemonium-like situation.Tension prevailed near Shankumitta cottage (SMC) for the second day , when a few devotees, including women, broke the lock to get into the queues, breaking iron fencing.

Records show that many devotees had been waiting for nearly 20 hours in the 5-kmlong queues outside the Vaikuntam Queue Complex. The complex was built to facilitate 30,000 devotees).