Tirupati temple gets ?4cr in scrapped notes after note ban
Venkateswara Temple in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh has received over ?4 crore in demonetised ?500 and ?1000 rupee notes from devotees as donations after the note exchange deadline had expired, a shrine administrator said. The temple administration has written to the government and the Reserve Bank of India on the issue and is awaiting a reply, the official added.
The famous hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara in Tirumala is caught in a piquant situation as it has received over Rs 4 crore in demonetised 500 and 1,000 rupee notes from devotees in its hundi in the last two months, past the deadline for their exchange. The temple administration has written to the government and the Reserve Bank of India on the fate of the accumulated notes and was awaiting a response, a top official said today. Thousands of devotees thronging the cash-rich temple from various parts of the country continued to offer the junked currency in the hundi along with valid notes even after the deadline for exchange of demonetised notes expired on December 30. More than Rs four crore in demonetised currency had been offered in the hundi, Executive Officer of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which administers the ancient shrine, D Sambasiva Rao said. "We have already written to the RBI and Government of India about the demonetised notes offered by devotees as fulfillment of their vows and are awaiting a reply," he said. It is common practice for devotees of Lord Venkateswara to keep depositing cash in tiny boxes or mud pots kept in pooja rooms in their houses over a period, and then deposit it in the temple hundi whenever they undertake the pilgrimage to Tirumala. 