TIRUMALA: Over half a dozen devotees were injured, with 4 of them being hospitalised, when they were caught in a minor stampede in the 'Divya Darshan' queue at Tirumala Saturday.The incident occurred at the entrance of the queue, when, taking advantage of the absence of enough security personnel, many devotees tried to enter at the same time. As it was a weekend, about 22,000 pilgrims had trekked to Tirumala Hills from Alipiri by 10:30 a.m. and congregated at the Narayanagiri gardens to enter the Divya Darshan queue, which joins the main queue in Vaikuntam Queue Complex mid-way. Divya Darshan is for those who trek to Tirumala from Alipiri and Srivari Metlu near Srinivasa Mangapuram.Sources said an argument broke out between devotees in the queue, resulting in some pushing and shoving. At the same time, other devotees tried to enter the queue en masse, leading to a minor stampede. Around six people were injured.A devotee identified as Saraswathi (45), broke her arm, while Prakash, a youngster, broke his leg. Both of them were shifted to Ashwani Hospital. Arun Kumar and his wife Revathi, a middle-aged couple, also suffered injuries and were given first aid before being discharged.TTD EO LV Subramanyam, who was on a surprise inspection tour, rushed to the spot along with security men and took control of the situation. TTD JEO KS Srinivasa Raju regularised the queue in the Vaikuntam Queue complex.Taking serious view of the incident, TTD officials are probing the lack of security personnel at Narayanagiri gardens. Srinivasa Raju, speaking to Express, attributed the incident to Saturday's heavy pilgrim rush .“We have limitations and can provide darshan to a maximum of 90,000 devotees per day. Assuming that they will get quicker darshan, more devotees are opting for Divya Darshan. As against 5,000 devotees a day initially, Divya Darshan queue sees 20,000 devotees per day now. We are taking measures to see that all devotees are provided a comfortable darshan, he said.
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