Today's Tirumala News..

Today's Tirumala News.. Headlines New dining hall in Annadanam Complex TTD moots spiritual expo of vahanams Tonsure Takes Longer Than Darshan! New dining hall in Annadanam Complex Tirupati , Sep 23 : TTD Trust Board chairman K Bapi Raju inaugurated a third dining hall in the massive Matrusri Tarigonda Vengamamba Annaprasadam Complex here on Thursday. Earlier, he, along with his wife Annapurna, performed pujas to the photo of Sri Padmavathi Venkateswara and later dined in the complex along with other pilgrims. Before he began consuming Annaprasadam, he recited the Annapurna Devi Stotram along with executive officer LV Subrahmanyam, joint executive officer KS Srinivasa Raju, chief vigilance and security officer MK Singh and other important officials. After lunch, Bapi Raju inaugurated the buffet system of food serving in the fourth dining hall and served food to pilgrims. The chairman said the objective of the Annadanam programme is ``serving delicious food to each and every pilgrim who visits Tirumala. Already, the food that is being served here is very good but we still want to improve the taste and add new delicacies. We are prepared to serve any number of pilgrims who turn out for upcoming Brahmotsavam,'' he said. Deputy EO (Annadanam) Gajapathi and other officials were also present. TTD moots spiritual expo of vahanams Tirupati , Sep 23 : The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) is planning to arrange a spiritual exhibition of the celestial processional vehicles of Lord Venkateswara at the Vaibhavotsava manda-pam at Tirumala soon. Speaking to the media at Tirumala on Friday, the TTD executive officer, Mr L.V. Subramanyam, and joint executive officer, Mr K.S. Srinivasa Raju, said after a two-hour-long inspection locally, that the Lord takes pleasure rides in various vahanams during the annual Brahmotsavams, with each vehicle having its own mythological significance. "The vahanams will be displayed for general pilgrims soon at the Vaibhavotsava mandapam with a certain time slot of opening and closure so that the pilgrims can know about the mythological significance of these vahanams," the officials said. Booklets were prepared, duly explaining the importance of the vehicles, these to be distributed to pilgrims. The officials expressed satisfaction with the feedback from pilgrims during inspections at various choultries. Tonsure Takes Longer Than Darshan! Tirupati , Sep 23 : The laxity of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams in recruiting regular barbers for the Kalyanakatta, the main tonsure centre, on Tirumala is testing the patience of devotees and upsetting their schedules. Not a single barber has been re-fruited on a regular basis in the past 15 years though the pilgrim flow has increased 10 times. Devotees, who wish to offer their hair to the Lord, have to wait for six to eight hours on normal days and for longer periods on holidays and during festival season when the rush is heavy. Strangely, sometimes, devotees wait longer for tonsure of their head than for the darshan of the Lord. Yet, the administration has failed to address the problem in right nearnest. Concomitant with the ordeal of devotees is the exploitation of labour at the richest Hindu religious institution! This apart, the delay in appointing barbers and regularising those working on an ad hoc basis has led to a plethora of protest by the dbarbers for a better deal and an acrimonious tussle among the associations representing them in the past three years. After the abolition of the Mirasi (hereditary) sys-which was in vogue at he Srivari temple on Tirumala and other shrines under TTD administration and also at the Kalyanakatta, about 600 Mirasi barbers were absorbed into TTD service in 1986. Since then not a single barber has been recruited even though vacancies arose due to the retirement or death of some barbers. At present, 242 regular barber posts are vacant. Finding the situation tough, the TTD hired 175 barbers in 2001 on 'piece rate' basis i.e. payment of Rs 5 for tonsure of a pilgrim, which has subsequently been hiked to Rs 7 following criticism from devotees. Later, more barbers were hired on the 'piece rate' basis, bringing the total number of barbers at Kalyanakatta to 665. On an average, 25,000 to 30,000 pilgrims tonsure their heads every day. The number goes up to 40,000 to 50,000 during weekends and 60,000 to 75,000 during summer and festive seasons. Normally, the present team of barbers can serve a maximum number of 24,000 pilgrims. One barber can tonsure 40 heads in an 8-hour shift. Each shift has 200 barbers working, and there are three shifts a day. It is but natural that middlemen having a clout with politicians and officials are taking advantage of the situation and exploiting unemployed barbers who are keen on getting work or employment at Kalyanakatta. There is a huge demand for employment at Kalyanakatta, as the barbers believe that entry into the Till service, even on piece rate basis, will lay the path for a comfortable life and also fetch them some extra income in the form of tips from pilgrims. The TTD has twice given up recruitment of barbers first in October last year and in June this year. It appointed 120 barbers last year on free service (Srivari seva) basis to cope with the work load while avoiding legal complications. Again, it prepared a list of 220 barbers for posting on piece rate basis but shelved the move in the face of stiff resistance from barbers, alleging irregularities in the selection. AP Nayee Brahmana Seva Sangham president Enukonda Subrahmanyam and AP Kshavara Vruttidarula Sangham president Devara-konda Nagaraj squarely blame the TTD for the situation. "The delay in appointing barbers is the root cause of the problems being faced by devotees as well as barbers," they say. The TTD needs at least 1,500 barbers to render timely service to devotees. It has no dearth of money but is dilly-dallying on recruiting. From time immemorial tonsuring is a significant and inseparable ritual connected with Tirumala pilgrimage and the devout observe it as a token of fulfilment of their vow. It is unfortunate that the TTD is not giving due importance to streamline the functioning of Kalyanakatta. "Barbers are often forced to do double duty and slog for 16 hours or even more in return for meagre payments. No wonder, some barbers fall ill because of the stress. "Further, the situation has spawned corruption. Some greedy Till employees fleece the barbers. If 'mamool' is not paid, they are harassed or even implicated in false cases. The insecurity of job and the need to grease the palms of administrative staff force some barbers to take or demand tips from pilgrims, tarnishing the image of the Devasthanam. Recruitment of adequate number of barbers solves all these problems," Subrahmanyam and Nagaraj say. Executive officer LV Subrahmanyam was candid enough to admit the delay in recruiting barbers, though for various reasons including legal. "It is shameful that the pilgrims wait for hours to tonsure their heads," he says and assures that the TTD is taking measures to solve the problem soon. "We have got sanction for recruitment of 600 barbers on a regular basis and plan to get clearance for recruiting 400 more," he says, assuring contract barbers of justice.