Ambimama - India

First Bad News
Under pressure from general public who were made to wait for hours the AP Government took exception to the administration of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) extending ‘‘undue preferential treatment’’ to the Amitabh Bachchan family when they visited Tirumala on April 22 with the newlywed star couple — Aishwarya Rai and Abhisek — the TTD Board on Thursday asked its executive officer K V Ramanachary to conduct a probe and fix responsibility.

What irked the TTD Board members was that the administration went overboard, violated protocol and held up devotees, causing inconvenience to thousands of pilgrims waiting to have a darshan of Lord Venkateswara.

Even a few compartments of the Queue Complex were kept vacant for the VIP guests to have a ‘‘hassle-free’’ darshan.

The executive officer himself offered prasadam to the VIP guests though they are not covered by the protocol. In all, the Bachchan family spent a cool 45 minutes in the sanctum sanctorum.

GOOD NEWS
Free Laddu to Sarvadarshan pilgrims
The TTD Trust Board resolved to supply one laddu each, free of cost to the Sarvadarshan devotees entering temple for darshan through general queue.

At present, the TTD is providing one laddu at a subsidised rate of Rs.5 each and one extra laddu at Rs.10 to the Sarvadarshan devotees.

The board also resolved to supply a handbook or CD or audio cassette as pusthaka prasadams on devotional songs and works, to the pilgrims when they enter the temple for darshan.

The books and cassettes would be in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Hindi, the chairman explained.