Even as resistance from the Opposition BJP against charging fees from the devotees visiting the famous Hindu temple in Una in Himachal Pradesh by the state government, the system of ‘Special entry fee’ is already finding favour with the public.

Since its notification of the new system on Tuesday for Mata Chintpurni Temple darshan (visit), booking for passes has already started trickling in with as many as 102 booking on the first day on Wednesday.

Replicating a concept that is already prevalent in famous temples in the country, such as Tirupati temple in Andhra Pradesh and Mahakaleshwar temple Ujjain, the new system witnessed a collection of Rs 18,750 even though it was not a busy day.

The temple has become the first in the state to have made such arrangement for seamless access and to avoid any chaos, besides, doing away with the touts who were otherwise fleecing the devotees and the pressure on the administration to get the devotes who used their influence to get access to the temple.

Commissioner (Temple) cum Deputy Commissioner Una, Raghav Sharma said, “It is in no way a VIP system of entry, but a Sugam Darshan Pranali that provides four levels for easy access to the temple.”

Among the four levels, first is for the dignitaries, including the governor, ministers, MLAs, MPs and all those having security protocol, and is totally free of cost. It’s there in the state guest scheme of the state government, he added.

“Second is the chargeable pass for a fee of Rs 1,100 that allows access to five devotees. And the third is for the disabled along with his/her attendant, where only the attendant is charged a nominal fee of Rs 50 and free to and fro transportation service through a golf cart to the temple,” he said.

This also is similarly applicable for the fourth level passes respectively for senior citizens and for people with critical illness who can’t stand and wait, he maintained.

A daily quota of 500 passes has been fixed and online booking will also be started soon, he added.

“We have evolved a transparent system as there were some devotees who were otherwise visiting temples using references and even paying to the touts for quick darshan to the temple. The whole business will be done away which helps in crowd control,” said Sharma, adding that it would also help generate income and assist in further development of the temple.

Meanwhile, BJP MLA and former ninister Bikram Singh Thakur, opposing the move, called levying of fees for temple darshan as unfortunate.

“It is playing with people’s faith in the state called “Devbhoomi” (land of the gods), which won’t be tolerated where the devotees have to pay visit to the temple,” he said, adding that this will encourage discrimination and VIP culture.