TTD to get App for checking unfair practices by hotels

HYDERABAD: The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) on Tuesday informed the

Hyderabad High Court

that it will soon come out with an App, currently being developed by

Tata Consultancy Services

(TCS), to address the grievances of devotees.

The bench of acting CJ

Ramesh Ranganathan

and Justice G Shyam Prasad was hearing a public interest petition filed by Bharadwaja Chakarapani, who challenged the inaction of the TTD authorities in curbing exploitation of poor pilgrims by hoteliers on Tirumala hills by charging exorbitant rates for food items.

On Tuesday, when the hearing in the matter resumed, TTD counsel Sivaraj Srinivas informed the court about the TTD App. "We commissioned TCS for the job," he said. Once it is developed, people can download the App, lodge complaints and can even track the progress of their complaint till it reaches its logical end, he said. "We have also created two toll free numbers and a WhatsApp number for people to lodge complaints about TTD service," he said. And a team of four officials has been appointed to look into complaints from devotees on food prices and other services, she said.

The TTD counsel also informed the court that there were eight big hotels at Tirumala and that all of them were told that they would face stringent punishment if found resorting to unfair practices in the sale of food items. "We have displayed the prices of all items and the toll free and WhatsApp numbers under the price list urging the people to complain in case of any exploitation by the hoteliers," the TTD counsel said. "We are also giving wide publicity to the facility through our temple TV channel," he said. The petitioner's counsel, however, told the court that the hotels were immune to the public outcry and even after 'crackdown' by the temple administration, they never really stopped fleecing pilgrims. He showed a 10-day old hotel bill of a pilgrim that revealed how the customer had to pay more than 500 percent of the prescribed rate.
The bench advised him to make a complaint on the toll free number provided by the temple now and asked him to file an affidavit on the response he receives from the administration.