The Emergency Board Meeting was held at Annamaiah Bhavan in Tirumala on Saturday. The meeting chaired by TTD Chairman Sri YV Subba Reddy discussed on some important issues. The meeting was followed by a press meet. Some Excerpts:
We have resumed darshan of Lord Venkateswara from June 8 onwards. We have carried out a survey on the pilgrims who had darshan and reached their home places. Not even a single devotee has been tested positive. But as the COVID cases are increasing across the country, we are not going to enhance the pilgrim numbers for darshan till this month end.
The pilgrims have also been following the COVID guidelines prescribed by TTD with utmost discipline and having hassle free darshan of Lord Venkateswara. However, the Chairman again appealed to devotees to book their darshan slots in online only and avoid pilgrimage if they belong to Red Zone or Containment Zones.
In TTD, 17 employees have tested positive. But they got affected by COVID spread in their respective places they hail from and not in Tirumala. We will not compromise on spending money over the health safety and security of our employees and have already instructed the authorities to provide them with the best treatment. Instead of a week shift for employees, we are now contemplating two week shift for the employees to ensure their health safety. Every employee will be tested for Corona and then only they will be allowed to discharge their duties. The local legislators Sri B Karunakar Reddy, Dr C Bhaskar Reddy along with Additional EO Sri AV Dharma Reddy will instill confidence among the employees by holding meetings with Employees Associations.