Free Meals For Tirumala Devotees

It is a delightful sight at the Nitya Annadanam complex in Tirumala.

A week ahead of Brahmotsavam-2010, the TTD has been feeding nearly 1 lakh devotees who throng Tirumala, at the Annadanam complex. Its doors are kept open from 8am in the morning till 11pm at night, to feed hungry devotees who come out after a darshan of the deity after having waited in queue for over 24 hours.

In spite of recession and a steep hike in costs of transport services and essential commodities, the TTD seems resolute to do more for the devotees, whose numbers are, incidentally, increasing alarmingly by the day.

The Tirumala Tirupati Dewasthanams (TTD) has set another innovative and epoch-making initiative to reaffirm the country's continued faith in traditional values. For the Brahmotsavam of 2010, it proposes to provide free meals every day, all 9 days, to a minimum of 1 to 2 lakh devotees per day.

"We appeal to all devotees to bear with us, as are gearing up to make robust arrangements to provide free accommodation, food, laddu prasadam, and sarva darshan to every devotee who visits Tirumala," says TTD Executive Officer I Y R Krishna Rao.

"It is a challenge we accept with the blessings of Lord Venkateswara," says the Executive Officer.

What began as a scheme launched by a devout donor's penance to feed the poor at Tirumala in memory of his beloved elders on 6 April 1985, has today grown into an institution with a corpus as huge as over Rs. 220 crore.

The scheme started off feeding just 2,000 persons 23 years ago, with interest accruing from the donations. Today, it has snowballed into the massive Nitya Annadanam program, feeding a minimum of 45,000 devotees on an average.

The Sri Venkateswara Nithya Annadanam Trust was founded on 1st April 1994, and has grown into a huge organization today.

TA P Narayana, who is in charge of the Annadanam scheme, said that 800 donors had contributed to the kitty of the Trust so far.

Donations continue to pour in for the corpus every passing day.

Narayana said, "Earlier, we had donors for building guest rooms; and now devotees are offering funds for Annadanam."

Initially, devotees would enjoy a 6-course lunch or dinner to their fill. The menu included Sweet Pongal (prasadam), vegetable curry, chutney, sambar, rasam and rice. However, from 1st August 2008, the TTD administration also added dal and ghee to balance the nutrition in the food, on the advice of specialists from the National Institute of Nutrition.

A donor from West Godavari district has come forward to construct a state-of-the-art complex to set up a hygienic and modern kitchen and dining hall for the Annadanam Trust at Tirumala at a cost of Rs. 20 crores, which is almost ready. The country's construction giant L&T has completed the work faster.

"In the new set-up, we are geared-up to cook rice for 1 to 2 lakh persons during the Srivari Brahmotsavam, at the rate of 400 bags of rice per day," Naarayana said.

The officer in charge of the Annadanam complex says that TTD also provides upma, milk, curd rice, butter milk and sambar rice on a 2-hourly cycle to devotees who wait in the Vaikuntam queue complex for hours.

On the occasion of the Srivari Brahmotsavam-2010, the TTD plans to provide more amenities not just to devotees in queues, but also to those who come to Tirumala on foot. Food packets are also being prepared for distribution to pilgrims who come on foot - and facilities will be station both at the Padala Mantapam or Gali Gopuram. Vegetable-growers from Madanapalli, Chittoor, Bangalore and Chennai are donating vegetables to the Annadanam trust every day.

Krishna Rao, who conducted a special inspection of the Nitya Annadanam program, advised officials to give priority to hygiene and sanitation in view of the rainy season, and to ensure against any wastage of food.

Courtesy: INN