The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has provided a financial grant of ₹25 lakh to 501 temples constructed in backward areas for carrying out dhoopa, deepa and naivedyham rituals.
Briefing the media on Friday, TTD Executive Officer A.V. Dharma Reddy said the grant was released from the Srivani trust funds for August, and each temple was provided with an aid of ₹5,000.
During the monthly pilgrim interactive session held at Annamaiah Bhavan on Friday, he said the Board has already resolved to procure fine-quality rice from the State Rice Millers Association to improve the taste of the food supplied under the Nitya Annadanam scheme.
Vaikunta Ekadasi darshan tickets
Tickets for the 10-day Vaikunta Ekadasi darshan will be released along with the quota of December month online quota. He did not respond positively to a suggestion for the resumption of offline darshan tickets for senior citizens as they were being issued in a limited number and that the same applied to the Anga Pradakshina tokens.
The laddus are prepared as per the ‘dittam’ (manual enlisting of the ingredients and the quantity in which they should be used), which has been followed for centuries, and it is not possible to reduce the quantity of sugarcandy on the pretext that the pilgrims with diabetics are on an increase, he said.
TTD is already using desi cow products in the making of prasadams and in the performance of daily kainkaryams and in fact, is now equipped with more than 200 desi cows at its diary farm and efforts are on to increase their number sunstantially.
Organ donation
Mr. Reddy also said that the TTD-run Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences (SVIMS) in Tirupati has state-of-art infra-structure facilities and underlined the need for encouraging organ donation among the public.
Animal attacks on Tirumala footpath
In the wake of the increase in the movement of wild animals, he said the sale of fruits and vegetables has been barred on both its foot paths and urged the devout to abstain from the act of feeding domestic animals on the footpath, which in turn attracted them.
