The pushing and jostling by devotees to have a glimpse of Lord Venkateswara has been all too notorious and the ‘Jaragandi… Jaragandi’ (meaning ‘Please move’) by the staff and volunteers is a ubiquitous cry. Things started falling in place and a semblance of order is in the process of being restored after the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Executive Officer M.G. Gopal decided to make use of the ‘vertical space’ available before the sanctum sanctorum.
It was on May 29 that the three-layer system was formally introduced in the temple to see if it could mitigate the woes of the devotees. The idea was simple. The available space before the deity was divided into three queue lines at varying heights. The first row was raised with the help of a wooden plank measuring 16 inches high, the second at 7 inches and the third at the floor level.
This way, the authorities ensured that pilgrims could get closer to the shrine in three parallel rows, without a devotee obstructing the view of those behind him/her. While it all boils down to the number of devotees provided darshan at the end of a day, this new system proved successful even on this front. “In providing a jostling-free darshan to the public, we were even prepared to compromise on the number, but surprisingly, the number of devotees who had darshan in the new system is marginally high”, Mr. Gopal said.
A comparative study of the number of pilgrims who had darshan in June 2013 and June 2014 (after the three-layer system was introduced) presented a rosy picture. While 20.82 lakh pilgrims were provided darshan in June 2013 it rose to close to 21 lakhs in June 2014. “That means, an additional 12,991 devotees had darshan this month under the new system”, Mr. Gopal said.
