TTD introduces online booking system to enhance transparency in Srivari Seva

TIRUMALA: The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) on Friday announced that it had developed an online booking system for Srivari Seva voluntary service with the goal of increasing transparency and giving more devotees the opportunity to serve as volunteers.

The TTD Endowments Oficer (EO) AV Dharma Reddy attended the calls of 35 pilgrim callers from throughout the country during the live phone-in programme, 'Dial your EO', held on Friday at Annamaiah Bhavan in Tirumala.

Callers Aparna and Ramprasad from Hyderabad, Janardhan Reddy from Nandyal, and Saroja from Kurnool revealed that whenever the quota was released, online bookings were completed within the first two to three minutes. They even appealed to the EO to consider offline Srivari Seva voluntary service bookings.

Answering the callers, the EO said, that an online system was introduced to enhance transparency in Srivari Seva. "Srivari Seva was commenced by TTD over two decades ago with a noble aim to render free services to pilgrims with fellow pilgrims who registered as volunteers. But due to an increase in demand for Srivari Seva, some miscreants started collecting money from sevaks and stared booking them separately. To curb this practice even in a voluntary service area like Srivari Seva, the online system was introduced. The online application in Srivari Seva is cent percent genuine and nobody can hack it and book sevaks illegally," he said.

The EO added that would instruct the employees to behave with Srivari Sevaks with poise and dignity who come from far off places to render services to pilgrims.

Callers Kasi Vishwanatha Sharma and Mohan from Guntur brought to the notice of EO about the improper maintenance of rooms in Sapthagiri.

Responding to this, the EO said that the TTD has renovated 6,000 cottages at Rs 120 crore in the last four years and would soon take up repairs of Sapthagiri also.

When Syam Kumar from Hyderabad asked the EO to release a certain quota for senior citizens offline, the EO said that the senior citizens should also obtain SSD tokens or SED tickets and they would be verified through biometric for darshan with the assistance of Srivari Sevaks on producing tickets or tokens. He added that it was not possible to release offline quota for senior citizens and Angapradakshina as well.

When Sudarshan from Hyderabad appealed the EO to continue showing religious films on Sundays in SVBC, the EO replied that the films could be watched on any other channel or on YouTube. "However, TTD has reinvented the SVBC in such a way that specialists are presenting pravachanams from epics like Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavat, and other puranas, which has captivated the hearts of millions and millions of Srivari devotees over the world, resulting in an incredible increase in viewership," the EO said.

Anand from Karnataka poured in appreciation for TTD and its facilities and SVBC. He sought the EO to provide information about the darshan timings, arjita sevas etc in Kannada to which EO readily agreed to implement the same.