The Sri Venkateswara temple atop Tirumala in Andhra Pradesh witnessed a huge surge of devotees on Tuesday, April 12, leading to a stampede-like situation, leaving a few people reportedly injured. Visuals showed a large number of devotees crammed against each other even as police and other authorities tried to control the crowd. Some others were also seen lying down by the side of the queue due to dehydration, after standing in the sun for hours for a darshan ticket.
Speaking to local media outlets, several devotees complained that there was no place for them to sit, and neither was food or water provided to them as they stood in the queue for several hours. Women, children and senior citizens were affected the most, they said. Some said they were waiting for as long as five to six hours just for tickets. Many lashed out at the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) for its poor management of the crowd.
Taking to Twitter, former Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supremo N Chandrababu Naidu said, “The plight of devotees waiting for Sarva Darshan tokens in Tirumala has caused a great deal of concern. If thousands of devotees are standing in the blazing sun with toddlers for hours ... the idea that they should at least be provided with shade and drinking water has not come to TTD.”
“Looking at Tirumala only as a source of income has resulted in devotees being neglected in matters like darshan and accommodation. Restrictions on even going up the hill are meant to hurt the sentiments of the devotees. The TTD should wake up immediately and take corrective action,” he added.
తిరుమలను కేవలం ఆదాయ వనరు కోణంలోనే చూస్తూ... భక్తులకు దర్శనం, వసతి వంటి అంశాల్లో నిర్లక్ష్యం చూపించారు. కొండపైకి వెళ్లేందుకు కూడా ఆంక్షలు విధించడం భక్తుల మనోభావాలను దెబ్బతీసేలా... శ్రీవారిని భక్తులకు దూరం చేసేలా ఉన్నాయి. టీటీడీ వెంటనే మేలుకుని దిద్దుబాటు చర్యలు చేపట్టాలి.(2/2)
— N Chandrababu Naidu (@ncbn) April 12, 2022
As the crowd continued to swell on Tuesday, the TTD announced that devotees could proceed with the darshan without tokens. Speaking to a local media outlet, TTD Joint Executive Officer (JEO) Dharma Reddy said, “We have a total capacity to accommodate 75,000 to 80,000 devotees to do darshan every day. This morning (April 12), over 70,000 to 80,000 devotees came together since the next few days are holidays. There was an unusual crowd. We immediately stopped issuing tokens for the darshan and told devotees they can proceed to Tirumala. We did face problems for one hour but now it is all sailing smoothly.”
“We spoke to the chairman and decided to cancel the VIP break darshan tickets for the next few days till Sunday (April 17). This will ensure that regular devotees will get two to three hours more for darshan. Since we are allowing devotees without tokens, we are making accommodations to provide food and water in queues itself,” he added.
Similar protests had broken out against the TTD in January this year as slogans of ‘EO (Executive Officer) down down’ reverberated through the temple on January 13, amid the Vaikunta Ekadashi darshan. At the time, the devotees alleged that due to inadequate arrangements made by the TTD, they were forced to wait in the queue for hours without food and water. Devotees also expressed their outrage over alleged preferential treatment provided to VIPs, who skipped the queue for the darshan.