To curb the alleged coercion tactics of the hairdressers at its ‘Kalyanakatta’(tonsuring centre), the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) has come up with an innovative idea bringing the much needed relief to the devotees and pilgrims.

The management has been fighting this problem of the alleged extortion of money by the hairdressers for the past several decades now. Many steps like despite installation of CCTV cameras, registering of cases against erring hairdressers and stepping up of vigilance at the centre, were taken by the management but to no avail.

But the latest decision to provide the devotees with the counterfoil of the tonsuring ticket is likely to put an end to the practice.

Now, every devotee going in for a tonsure will be issued a ticket which will have a registration number. The details of the ticket along with the name of the hairdresser who tonsured a devotee will be fed into the computers.

Any devotee can lodge a complaint against a hairdresser seeking more money just by quoting the registration number on his counterfoil. It will facilitate the management in initiating disciplinary action.

The devotees need not lodge the complaint immediately. They can do so after returning back to their native places, at the click of a mouse button. They need not even quote the date and time of their visit as the management can easily get all the details through the databases with the help of the registration number.

More than 55,000 devotees visit the hill shrine on an average everyday and nearly one-third of them tonsure their heads in fulfillment of their prayers.

TTD Executive Officer L.V. Subramanian sounded confident that the initiative will prove highly rewarding.