Bhumana alleges irregularities in Srivani Darshan ticket booking system

Tirupati: Former TTD chairman Bhumana Karunakar Reddy dared TDP leaders for a debate over the alleged irregularities in the Srivani VIP Darshan tickets booking system.

Addressing reporters in Tirupati on Saturday, Bhumana alleged that devotees are facing extreme hardships while trying to book the Srivani Darshan tickets as they are getting exhausted literally in a flash. “As a former chairman of the TTD, when I tried to examine the devotees' complaints by trying to book a Srivani Darshan ticket for myself through online mode, I found that the quota of 800 tickets got booked and exhausted within a minute after the TTD opened the online booking window at 9 am on Saturday,” he said.

He said a couple of days ago the TTD administration admitted about some middlemen are resorting to hi tech manipulations to bulk-book Srivani Darshan tickets. “It now appears that the temple management has done very little to plug the holes in its online booking systems to restore transparency and confidence among the devotees,” Bhumana added.

Recalling that the TTD management during the YSRCP regime floated the Sri Venkateswara Alayala Nirmanam trust with a noble intention to spearhead the glory of Lord Venkateswara by building temples in remote parts of the two Telugu states, he alleged it’s fortunate that Srivani trust has become nothing short of a money spinner for the current regime. “The irregularities being reported in the online booking of Srivani Darshan tickets is a classic case of connivance of insiders with middlemen. There are complaints that middlemen are collecting ₹5,000 up and above the ₹10,000 for each ticket from devotees,” he said, and demanded a detailed probe into the alleged scam.

Bhumana also faulted the govt for failing to appoint a full-fledged IT head at the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, where all ticketing systems besides most of the TTD administration have been moved to online mode. “While on one hand the state govt is fully engrossed in generating a hype over global tech giants like Google setting foot in the state, here, at the biggest and the richest Hindu temple trust in the world, the TTD doesn’t even have a full fledged IT general manager to effectively manage the temple trust in digital mode,” he lamented.