Post Demonetisation Pilgrims Decline at Tirupati, But Collections Go Up

New Delhi: The cash crunch consequent to the demonetisation drive has thinned down the queues in India’s richest temple but the collections have gone up in the last few days forcing authorities at the Sri Venkateshwara temple in Tirupati to install another collection box (hundi).Also Read: The Good, The Bad And the Bizarre of Currency Ban

A source in the Tirumala Tirupati Devesthanam Board which runs the temple told News18 that the rise could be on account of rich devotees dumping the now-scrapped notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 into the donation box.

However, he refused to give an idea of the approximate rise in collection saying he was not in a position to know about the exact figures.

The trustee said that there had been a slight decline in the number of visitors since last week. “On an average one lakh people visit the temple every day. There is a decline in that. May be around 25-30%,” he said.

Another famous temple in Karnataka, the Kollur Mookambika temple, is also seeing dwindling devotee inflow post demonetisation.

“It is a government administered temple. There can be no scam. Whatever we get goes into the account of the temple. Every paisa is accounted for. If we still get old denomination currencies, we will deposit them in the banks,” he said.

One of the largest temples in North India, the Sri Krishna Temple, at Mathura has requested the devotees not to drop scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes in its hundis.

AT Tirupati, the Trustee who spoke to News18 said that TTD is not accepting the old currency notes for other services at the temple and the devotees are asked to pay only in new currencies or in the denomination of Rs 100 and below”. Also Read: Demonetisation Move: Here Are the Parties For And Against It

It has also installed credit and debit card swiping machines for the smooth transaction of every day temple proceedings.

“We know that there is an acute shortage of cash. Just to ensure that nobody goes back hungry, we have arranged more food counters” he said.

Another trustee J Sekhar has also defended donation in old currencies saying that it is not a business transaction and the money goes into the bank account of the temple.