Nellore: Even as Agama pundits have been raising a hue and cry about planes flying over the sanctum sanctorum of the Tirumala shrine, another plane flew above the holy temple on Wednesday.According to principle of Agama Shastras (traditional holy scriptures), planes cannot fly over the main sanctuary of the temple.
The plane was spotted at around 8 am on Wednesday. It is believed that it was Spice Jet flight that left Renigunta airport for Hyderabad. On condition of anonymity a passenger on the flight said the Spice Jet flight flew very close to the Ananda Nilayam (holy shrine) a few minutes after take off, much to the surprise of those travelling to Hyderabad. He said that staff on the flight attributed the reason of flying close to the temple to heavy clouds on the regular route.
Referring to discussions among the passengers on the flight, he suspected that private airlines were opting for the Tirumala route to save fuel. He also said that many passengers expressed displeasure over the incident.
The TTD had requesting the Civil Aviation department to declare Tirumala as a no-fly zone citing security and religious issues but there has been no response from the Centre yet. Union minister for civil aviation Ashok Gajapati Raju, on a visit to Tirumala in July 2015, had made it clear that the issue was beyond the limits of his ministry and that such subjects were dealt by the ministry of defence. He had also said that they had referred the issue to the defence wing and had expressed confidence of a positive outcome.
According to TTD assistant vigilance and security officer Y. Ravindra Reddy, TTD authorities have been communicating to the Centre regarding the issue since 2002 but there has been no response. As many as 15 reminders have been sent to the Union government so far.
He said that airport officials in Renigunta had told him that they had not given clearance to any flight to fly towards Tirumala’s direction on Wednesday morning. “The officials assured to verify and get back to us,” Mr Reddy said.
