The popular temple of Lord Venkateshwara on Tirumala hills in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor region will be opened up for devotees from June 8, after a gap of more than two months.
Tirumala Venkateswara Swami Temple to Reopen from 8th June
The order with this impact was given by special chief secretary (endowments) JSV Prasad on Tuesday to Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which deals with the nation’s richest temple.
Nonetheless, at first, the opening of Tirumala temple would just be for a trial run for a couple of days to test the implementation of physical distancing standards to contain spread of Covid-19.
“During the trial run, only TTD employees and local people of Tirumala would be allowed to have darshan of the Lord. Only a limited number of people would be allowed at a time, duly maintaining a physical distance of 6 feet between persons at all times and all points,” Prasad said.
The TTD will take a call on resumption of darshan of Lord for the various explorers subsequent to surveying the circumstance during the trial run.
The Tirumala was closed on March 19. This is without precedent for the historical backdrop of the sanctuary that it was shut for darshan for such a long period.
The endowments division is yet to take a decision on opening of various temples. However, a month ago, the office recommended a progression of measures to be followed in all major temples in the state which had been shut since March 20, before the inconvenience of across the nation lockdown.
As indicated by the directions gave by the division to the temple authorities, devotees expecting to have darshan of the divinity should book the time allotment for the same in advance. The time slot allotments would be made a day ahead of time and conveyed to the devotees by method of instant messages to their mobiles.
The devotees need to produce Aadhaar card as an ID confirmation at the hour of wanting darshan according to the schedule opening designated to them. The darshans would be provided only from 6 am to 6 pm.
“On an average, not more than 250 devotees would be allowed per hour for darshan,” the circular said.
Unlike before, devotees can’t go into inward circles of the sanctuary (Antaralaya darshanams) or sanctum sanctorum (Garbhalaya darshanams) at any rate for now. They would likewise not be honored with Satari (a copy of Lord’s feet to be set on the head of devotee) or offered Teertham (Holy water) as least physical separation must be kept up for the wellbeing of Archakas (ministers).
The temple authorities have likewise been approached to guarantee satisfactory wellbeing measures in the sanctuaries in order to stay away from spread of infection. Each temple should develop plan of disinfectant passages any place plausible so lovers can go through them before entering the sanctuary.
They ought to likewise have offices for the devotees to wash their feet and with cleansers, other than sanitisers with remains at all passage focuses. All devotees ought to constantly wear face veils which ought to be promptly accessible in adequate numbers available to be purchased in the close by shops.
The temple authorities will exercise methods for keeping up minimum physical distance of 6 ft between two aficionados at some random purpose of time. They will likewise inspect the practicality of organizing line lines with elective materials like line producers (like in airports), rather than metal railings.
So as to activate financial assets, the endowments office has also requested that the sanctuary specialists increment online memberships for in-absentia pujas (Paroksha Seva) in their respective temples and give exposure for such worship.
