MARGAO
As rains lashed Tirupathi in the last few days, some of the pilgrims who had gone to the temple town as part of the government-sponsored pilgrimage under the Chief Minister Dev Darshan Yatra have cried foul over the lack of coordination and arrangements at the temple town.
While most devotees praised and appreciated the service during the journey by the chartered train, some of them, however, narrated their bitter experience on accommodation and room service, terming them as pathetic.
The chartered train was flagged off by Social Welfare Minister Subhash Phaldesai and Margao MLA Digambar Kamat earlier this week and returned at the Margao railway station on Sunday evening.
A couple of devotees pointed out that the rains that lashed the temple town of Tirupathi caused them immense hardships. An agitated Poonam Prabhugaonkar, a resident of Margao said the Social welfare department has no right to put the senior citizens to hardships at Tirupathi. “I had gone to Tirupathi by the chartered train as part of the CM’s Dev Darshan trip. The arrangements, treatment and service provided during the train journey were good. But, we had a bad experience once we reached Tirupathi.
They had promised the devotees VIP darshan, which means we will have the darshan within no time.
But, the senior citizens had to spend hours in queue”, she said. She added: “The accommodation in the hotels was pathetic. Since it was raining in Tirupathi, there was water seepage in the hotel rooms. No bedsheets and pillows were provided and the linen was dirty where some of the devotees were put up”.
Poonam said in the absence of the VIP darshan facility, some of the devotees could not take the darshan of Devi Padmanathi. Saying the pilgrims who had earlier gone to Tirupathi were provided with VIP service, she demanded to know why the same treatment was not given to the devotees this time round.
Another devotee Anandiben Keni, a resident of Navelim said there was no problem absolutely during the train journey, but the problem started once they reached Tirupathi. “Some of the devotees got the darshan of Lord Balaji and but could not pay darshan to Padmavathi Devi since much time was lost in the queue”, she said.
She said some of the devotees faced problems in respect of accommodation, saying some of the hotels did not provide hot water facility since most of them were senior citizens.
Former Margao Municipal Chairperson Sushila Naik, who returned home by the chartered train on Sunday evening said the rains did create problems at Tirupathi, but said the problems faced by the devotees were not man-made and purely because of nature and the rains. “We do not blame anyone since it was nature and rains that caused the hardships. The devotees had the Dev darshan and returned home”, Sushila said.
