Briefing the media persons at Annamaiah Bhavan in Tirumala on Saturday after the emergency Board Meeting, the Chairman said, this unique religious fete takes place once in 12 years in Tirumala shirne. “This religious fete commences with Ankurarpanam on August 11. This holy fete commences on August 12 and concludes on August 16. As the importance will be for vedic rituals inside the temple, the time for providing darshan to pilgrims will be very minimal. Our past history speaks that during the second week of August last, over 5.5 lakhs pilgrims visited hill temple. Keeping this in view, we have decided to dispense with darshan to avoid hardship to pilgrim devotees”, the Chairman reiterated.
Adding further he said, the pilgrims will not be allowed to enter Vaikuntham Queue Complex for darshan after 6pm of August 9. The darshan will resume to pilgrims only after 6am from August 17 on wards. “We therefore request the pilgrim devotees of Lord Venkateswara present across the globe to plan their pilgrimage accordingly”, the Chairman appealed to pilgrims via media.
TTD EO Sri Anil Kumar Singhal, board members, Sri Rudraaju Padmaraju, Sri Challa Ramachandra Reddy, Sri S Venkata Veeraiah, Sri Ashok Babu, Sri Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, Sri Peddireddi, Sri Meda Ramakrishna Reddy, Smt Sudha Narayanamurthy, special invitees Sri Raghavendra Rao, Sri Ashok Reddy, Tirumala JEO Sri KS Sreenivasa Raju, Tirupati JEO Sri P Bhaskar were also present.