TTD and Mis-Management

Indians like Pilgrimages, our gods are spread far and wide across the country and many of us try to cover as many pilgrimage locations as possible in a life time. In the most popular ones there is a perennial rush of pilgrims. Temple management for all the important shrines is under the control of Government (Devadaya, Dharmadaya Sakhas). Like in other areas of governance, temple management is corrupt, unimaginative, lacks in focus on pilgrim comfort and safety, devoid of focus on tradition and heritage and is mostly a commercial proposition. They ride on the gods in their money making endeavors.
Perhaps the most famous deity is Lord Venkateswara of Tirupati since he is known to bless his devotes with abundance (aapada mokkula vadu, which means that he is the lord who hears to help you in misfortunes) The temple is the richest pilgrimage center in the world, after Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, of any faith (assets over INR 50,000 crore) and the most-visited place of worship in the world. The temple is visited by about 50,000 to 100,000 pilgrims daily (30 to 40 million people annually on average), while on special occasions and festivals, like the annual Brahmotsavam, the number of pilgrims shoots up to 500,000, making it the most-visited holy place in the world. Despite all the richness the management lacks vision to provide for a holistic pilgrim experience. The aspects of safety, sanctity etc, they are bothered more about the VIP experience than the commoner experience.

I visited the temple town of Tirumala/Tirupati last week on the last day of Brahmotsavam. I took the steps to reach to the hill top. After waiting for 5 hours in the general queue (dharma darshan) we were led to what is called Pilgrim holding centers (vaikuntam complex). I had no qualms standing for whatever time in the queue to have the darshan of the lord (it is worth the effort for that fleeting experience of bliss for the devout). I used the time to understand the queue management and safety procedures in place at the vaikuntam complex. My conclusion is once you enter the complex you are basically entering a building without any fire safety, crowd control and fire exit facilities. It is amazing that so many people go in and come out of this complex every day and the temple administration has not paid attention to this crucial aspect. Instead of investing in infrastructure and implementing end to end queue/pilgrim management models TTD is basically boxing people into compartments without any fire exits and fire safety procedures and basically playing with lives.

Such a shame for the world’s richest temple body to treat its visitors. One can understand the overwhelming rush but there should be methods to have an end to end view of the entry and exit of the pilgrims with safety.

Governor of AP has congratulated TTD for the successful conduct of the Brahmotsavams, he must instruct TTD to conduct a study of safety procedures in the temple queue and see for himself the thoughtless ways of TTD.