28-04-2025
High demand for `1,000 ‘Chandanotsavam'
Visakhapatnam: When new movies of superstars are released and cricket matches are scheduled, the tickets generally get exhausted in a jiffy. But this is the first time, Rs 1,000 tickets for 'Chandanotsavam' witness a similar trend.
The tickets for common devotees to witness 'Nijarupa darshan' on 'Chandanotsavam' seems to be a distant dream as they turn out to be inaccessible four days before the festival.
Devotees from across the country visit Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Devasthanam to view the 'real Avatar' of the presiding deity on 'Vaisakha Suddha Tadiya' every year celebrated as 'Chandanotsavam'.
The exercise of selling tickets for 'Nijarupa' darshan commenced on April 24 in two different categories, including Rs 300 and Rs 1,000. Along with the PR counter at Simhachalam uphill, tickets were sold through five different banks in Visakhapatnam. However, Rs 1,000 tickets have become inaccessible within 24 hours of its sale commencement.
Earlier, Rs 1,000 ticket used to be available even if devotees visited the temple on Chandanotsavam day. But this time, even at Simhachalam counter, the tickets were unavailable four days before the festival.
Barring Rs 1,000 tickets, free darshan and Rs 300 tickets are now available to devotees. Those, who enter these two queue lines to witness 'Nijarupa' darshan, have to end up trekking three-and-a-half kms. This would take at least four to six hours of their time. With this, common devotees express ire over the inaccessibility of Rs 1,000 tickets as they have been shuttling between the banks and Simhachalam counters to get tickets. 'On Saturday, we visited the Simhachalam counter for Rs 1,000 ticket. However, the staff said it was exhausted by then. We were taken aback by the response as it is very difficult to wait for such long hours in the free darshan queue line,' says G Vijay Kumar, an employee in a private organisation.
Apparently, after the sale of Chandanotsavam tickets commenced, there is no announcement from the Devasthanam officials about the sale details.
Expressing concerns, a devotee N Mahesh mentions that the officials were announcing that Nirarupa darshan is going to be more accessible to common devotees. But in reality, he points out, it is quite a contrast to the announcement made. 'There is an allegation that Rs 1,000 tickets were blocked for political leaders. And it is very unfair,' he laments.
With restrictions in place for the VIPs and protocol tickets, there are allegations that Rs 1,000 tickets are being blocked and diverted to cater to the political pressure.
