Tirumala: TTD executive officer Anil Kumar Singhal on Friday reiterated that Vaikuntha Ekadasi Dwara Darshan tokens are being issued through the e-Dip system to ensure equal opportunity for devotees across the country. He said the system was introduced to avoid inconvenience seen in earlier years and to make the allotment process fully transparent.

Speaking during the monthly Dial Your EO programme at Annamayya Bhavan, the EO said TTD plans to facilitate darshan for 7.7 lakh devotees during the ten-day Vaikuntha Dwara Darshan period. Of the available 182 darshan hours, 164 hours have been allocated to common devotees, he added.

Responding to callers from Bhimavaram, Chennai, Hyderabad and Venkatagiri who sought an increased quota for the elderly and physically challenged, the EO said TTD must ensure justice to all categories of devotees and cannot increase allocations for a single group alone. To a caller from Tirupati, he clarified that all ten days of Vaikuntha Dwara Darshanam are spiritually significant. Since the majority of devotees aim for darshan on the first two days, TTD opted for e-Dip to ensure equal access. The last three days — January 6, 7 and 8 — have been earmarked for 15,000 devotees from Tirumala and Tirupati.

The EO also responded to various suggestions. He said officers will examine the possibility of resuming Parayanam on Nada Neerajanam.

He assured that staff and sevaks would be instructed to address devotees with ‘Govinda’. He also agreed to study a request to serve millet-based Annaprasadam on Vaikuntha Ekadasi for fasting devotees.

Other suggestions included preventing the playing of film songs on the Ghat Road, improving queue management, providing Annaprasadam to waiting devotees earlier to avoid wastage, strengthening solid-waste management at Gogarbham, ensuring better behaviour from sevaks, and reviving TTD Kalyana Mandapams.

The EO said TTD continuously reviews feasible suggestions in the best interests of pilgrims.Additional EO Ch Venkaiah Chowdary, CE Satyanarayana, SVBC CEO Phanikumar Naidu and other officials were present.