Bracing itself to manage the expected huge rush of devotees on the occasion of New Year day, the administration of the famous hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara has decided not to entertain VIP requests.
Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which manages the cash-rich temple, for the first time has taken a decision not to entertain all kinds of recommendation letters issued by VIPs for darshan and other facilities to their near and dear ones visiting the hills on January 1, TTD Public Relations Officer T Ravi told PTI tonight.
Only protocol VIPs would be given priority in getting accommodation and special entry tickets for darshan on payment, he said.
As part of the arrangements to manage the crowd, the temple management has also cancelled all daily rituals, including 'Kalyanotsavam' (celestial wedding) on January 1.
With a view to ensuring darshan of Lord Venkateswara to all, devotees would be allowed into the temple uninterruptedly from dawn to beyond midnight on the new year day, he said.
A thick security blanket would be thrown in and around Tirumala hills including the 10-km long stairway leading to the shrine, he added.
The Bhumata brigade, a women's outfit spearheading the
campaign against the ban on female devotees entering the sacred platform at Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar district submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis seeking his support to the move, after police foiled their attempt to storm the shrine.
The rights group's high-voltage campaign was stalled on the Republic Day when police stopped the marchers at Supa village, 70 km away from the shrine.
Political parties and spiritual gurus across the country have also backed their campaign, with Congress saying that it is the "pious duty" of whole society to support such a move.
A group of Muslim women on Thursday staged a protest in Mumbai demanding entry into a restricted area of the Haji Ali dargah.
Several activists belonging to Muslim women rights groups held placards demanding entry for females into the core area of the historic dargah, alleged it was "male patriarchy", and not religion, which was imposing restrictions on women.
They also said the practice went against tenets of Islam and the Indian Constitution.
A Muslim women's rights group is locked in a legal battle with trustees of the Haji Ali dargah, which has barred women's entry into mosque's mausoleum.
A petition challenging the Haji Ali Trust's decision to ban the entry of women in the sanctum sanctorum of the dargah (grave of a male Muslim saint) is pending before the Bombay High Court.
On January 18, the HC said it would wait for the Supreme Court's ruling on entry of women in Sabarimala temple of Kerala before deciding on the plea related to the dargah.
At Sabarimala, which attracts millions of devotees during the peak pilgrim season in November to January, women of menstrual age are not allowed to go up the holy hillock and worship.
A few years back, a huge controversy erupted after a Kannada film actress claimed that she had worshipped at the hillshrine in the prime of her youth.
