Volunteers will be trained in soft skills: EO

Tirumala: The Srivari Seva volunteers will be given training on soft skills for better communication and dealing with the pilgrims in a smooth manner, said TTD Executive Officer (EO) Anil Kumar Singhal.

Answering a pilgrim caller Muralidhar from Rajamahendravaram during 'Dial Your EO' programme on Friday, who brought to the notice of the EO about the rough handling of the volunteers inside the sanctum, Anil Kumar stated the volunteers will be imparted training on how to deal with the pilgrims.

"Already, we are giving training to our employees, volunteers, scouts and guides on soft skills. Still, we are receiving complaints on rough handling. We will enhance our training and orientation programme to the volunteers and guides," he added. The EO answered 19 callers as a part of the monthly 'Dial Your EO' programme held on Friday.

Callers Venkatakrishna from Nellore, Sai from Hyderabad and Nagaraju from Mysore sought the EO to simplify the advance room booking in online from the existing 120 days to 60 days or a month to which EO replied them that out of 6,000-odd rooms available in Tirumala, only 2,000 rooms were kept for online advance booking quota while the remaining rooms can be booked in current booking.

"The decision was taken only after considering the majority requests from the pilgrims into consideration as we are releasing Arjitha Seva quota in online three months in advance," he explained. Another pilgrim caller Prasad from Dwaraka Tirumala sought EO to clear the liquor shop and meat stall located in front of TTD choultry in Dwaraka Tirumala. Responding to his plea, Anil Kumar informed him that the TTD has no direct role to intervene in the issue. He promised caller to negotiate with the concerned authorities to sort out the problem.

Callers Ramu from Anantapur, Padmavathi from Kavali, Shravya from Hyderabad and Srinivasa Murthy from Bengaluru requested EO to revise the online dip system for Arjitha Seva tickets as they are not getting them despite trying for over a year. Replying to them, the EO said, for 10,000-odd tickets in online, over 1.2 lakh pilgrims are trying every month. "Finally, 5,000 plus (two members of a family) are getting the tickets.

In the online process, some may get in their first attempt while some others after their 10th or 11th attempt. In this case, we cannot increase the number of persons which we can allot tickets to a family since that may still hamper the figures," he stated.