This Article is From Aug 14, 2013

Telangana protests: Strike on but 60 buses will run to Tirupati temple

Telangana protests: Strike on but 60 buses will run to Tirupati temple

God should be spared from such issues, said devotees.

Tirupati: In some relief for the thousands of devotees that seek darshan at the famous Tirupati temple, striking state transport employees in Andhra Pradesh have agreed to allow about 60 buses from the Alipiri bus station in Tirumala to the Lord Venkateswara temple, situated nine km uphill.

The relief is small; about 90,000 pilgrims use the full service of 493 state transport buses every day to reach the temple.

On Tuesday, several thousand devotees were seen trekking up to the temple in the absence of any means of transport. Some paid as much as Rs. 2000 to the few private operators allowed to run buses in the region.

The state transport employees in the coastal Andhra and Rayalseema regions, collectively known as Seemandhra, are on an indefinite strike in protest against the decision to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh to create a new Telangana state.

A visitor from Chennai complained yesterday, "The strike was a shocker. God should be spared from these issues." Bus services to the temple were hampered for the first time in nearly 40 years.

Once Telangana is officially announced as a new state, residents of Tirumala, like others in the arid Rayalaseema region, fear that they will be denied access to water from the new state, endangering agriculture.
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