1.20 lakh ‘Vaikunta Dwara Darshan’ tokens exhausted in a whiff

Devotees transferring in a queue at one of many Vaikunta Ekadasi token concern centres in Tirupati. Normalcy returned after the stampede and 1.20 lakh tokens had been exhausted inside a number of hours.
| Picture Credit score: The Hindu

The tokens for the primary three days of the ten-day ‘Vaikunta Dwara Darshan’ at Tirumala Sri Venkateswara temple received exhausted inside hours of the opening of the counters, albeit after the unlucky stampede by which six devotees breathed their final.

The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has been observing the Vaikunta Ekadasi occasion, falling on January 10 this yr, within the type of a ten-day occasion within the latest years by preserving the sacred threshold ‘Vaikunta Dwaram’ open for ten days. Devotees contemplate it a ‘divine expertise’ to stroll by way of this threshold. That is primarily based on the observe adopted in Srirangam temple, which additionally helped unfold the gang for ten days.

The Slotted Sarva Darshan (SSD) tokens are usually issued at Srinivasam, Vishnu Nivasam and Bhudevi complexes in Tirupati. For the special day, the TTD opened counters in 5 extra centres within the metropolis viz., Indira Maidanam, Bairagipatteda, Jeevakona, M.R. Palle and Ramachandra Pushkarini, apart from one at Tirumala for the advantage of the native residents.

A whopping 1.20 lakh tokens had been meant to be distributed at these centres from 5 am on Jan 9 for darshan on Jan 10, 11 and 12, i.e., permitting 40,000 devotees on every day.

In view of the stampede-like state of affairs, the authorities determined to open the counters by Wednesday night time itself, as a substitute of 5 am on Thursday, inflicting confusion. The centres had been opened after the stampede and the 1.2 lakh tokens had been exhausted inside a number of hours.

With no work readily available after the problem of tokens for the primary three days, the TTD has determined to shut down the centres for the subsequent two days and open them up on January 12, for concern of tokens pertaining to January 13 darshan (someday upfront).

Nevertheless, going by the previous information, it has been amply established that devotees most popular to have darshan solely on the primary two days i.e., Vaikunta Ekadasi and Vaikunta Dwadasi, and swarmed the queue strains for the tokens for as of late. Even final yr, the token distribution centres painstakingly developed by the TTD throughout town had fewer takers than anticipated.