The incumbent chairman of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam board, which is the administrative body of the largest Hindu temple in Tirupati, BR Naidu has been adopting a no-holds-barred approach to overhaul the entire system on the hilltop in the wake of numerous allegations during the last five years when YSR Congress party was in power.
After taking charge as the Chairman of the board, BR Naidu proposed sweeping changes and started implementing them one by one without any delay and opposition because devotees have welcomed them unanimously. He came up numerous people’s centric initiatives in the last couple of months and there has been a visible change everywhere at the shrine.
Now, the Chairman came up with another ambitious proposal which will be a historical move if implemented effectively. BR Naidu stated that the TTD is soon going to ensure that devotees will no longer wait for hours in the long queues to complete the darshan of Lord Venkateswara Swamy. He informed that the board is planning to use face recognition technique with the help of Artificial Intelligence and help the devotees complete darshanam in just an hour.
While the TTD board’s vision and plan are very much welcome and heartening to hear, the main question is whether the idea is practically possible to execute ? This is because lakhs of devotees seek darshanam of the lord every day. For every timeslot, thousands of devotees enter the Vykuntam complex to join the long queues to get the glimpse of the god.
Even if the board infuses such advanced technologies to ensure a hassle-free darshanam for devotees, will it be technically feasible to accomodate thousands of devotees in just a single hour. Moreover, there will be a quota for VIP darshans and break darshans which will be alloted dedicated time slots. Also, some timings will be alloted for completing rituals to the god.
So, even though the statement from the new TTD chairman appear sound and logical, it will be a herculean task to implement it effectively. However, if his words turn into action, it will be the biggest achievement in the history of temple.
