Devotees gather at the Tirumala shrine on Thursday during the Brahmotsavam festival. (PTI)

Hyderabad, Sept. 29: The Telangana agitation has turned footfall into a relative trickle. So add a bit of pickle.

The trust that manages the Tirumala hill shrine is trying to spice things up for devotees by adding avakkai, the famous mango pickle of coastal Andhra Pradesh, to the free-meal menu.

The immediate reason appears to be the low turnout today on the first day of the annual Brahmotsavam festival.

Officials said the strike had disrupted pilgrim flow from all 10 Telangana districts. “Many from the districts bordering Maharashtra, Orissa and Karnataka also stayed away anticipating trouble,” said a senior official of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, which manages the Tirumala Venkateswara temple.

“Against an average daily flow of 70,000 pilgrims, there was hardly 30,000 at Tirumala on the inaugural day.”

So bring on the pickle.

Officials said the avakkai had been added to the menu of dal, rice, roti, sabji, sambar and butter milk under the Nitya Annadanam scheme at the Srivaishnavite shrine at Tirumala which provides free meals, twice a day, to countless devotees who come from all over the country.

Sources said the decision to spice up the menu was the brainwave of new TTD chairman Kanumuru Bapiraju.

The avakkai addition came even as protesters clamouring for a Telangana state intensified their agitation as part of the ongoing general strike that started a fortnight ago. They held rallies and sit-ins at various places while hawkers in Hyderabad did not deliver newspapers this morning.

For the time being, however, the TTD will serve only one variety of the pickle, as procuring large quantities of avakkai was not possible at such a short notice. “We will make arrangements soon for production of avakkai locally,” a trust official said.

The new Rs 30-crore Annadanam complex, donated by a devotee from Andhra, has more than 10 dining halls, a modern cooking system and a roti-making machine. Up to 8,000 persons can be served every hour.

The TTD has also set up a piped pure-water network with special taps across the 6km-radius hill shrine.

Temple authorities said they expected a large number of devotees from Tamil Nadu because of Puratasi, a month of penance and worship that coincides with the Brahmotsavam festival in Tirupati.

During the festival, devotees walk up to Tirumala in large groups and donate everything they come with except the return fare.