Religious fervor marks Vaikunta Ekadasi celebration at Tirumala

TIRUPATI: Thousands of devotees flocked to Tirumala for the Vaikunta Ekadasi and Vaikunta Dwara Darshan on Monday. The devotees have obtained their Slotted Sarva Darshan (SSD) free token in a hassle-free manner from the token counters set up in Tirupati. Vaikunta Dwara Darshan is a 10-day fete celebrated from January 2 to 11 in Tirumala.

Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) had set up around 100 counters at nine locations to issue tickets for the devotees. Speaking about the same, Chairman of TTD YV Subbareddy said, “With an intention to prioritize the darshan of common devotees, darshans issued on recommendation letters have been canceled for 10 days. SRIVANI tickets have also been canceled.” The chairman also appealed to the devotees to co-operate with the TTD management.

The TTD management were forced to issue tokens for darshan ahead of the scheduled time on Sunday due to devotees from far-off places arrived on Saturday night itself. The authorities have also set up barricades at all the nine counters to avoid stampede. TTD has also released a QR code scanner that allows devotees to find the nearest token counter from their place. The devotees can also have access to the date, time and slot of tokens issued at the token counters.

Meanwhile, the TTD Chairman on Monday unveiled the coffee table book “Tirumala the Seven Hills of Salvation” published by ‘The Hindu.’ The table book explains the features, history, festivals and services offered by Tirumala. Subbareddy thanked the management of The Hindu for making the book available to all the devotees.