ANNAPRASADAM TRUST, KKC AND BB COMPLETES THIRTY YEARS IN TTD-EO

TIRUMALA, APRIL 5: TTD Executive Officer Dr D Samba Siva Rao on Sunday said that the three important wings in Pilgrim Service-Annaprasadam, Kalyanakatta and Blood Bank have completed thirty successful years in TTD.

Addressing media persons at Matrusri Tarigonda Vengamamba Annaprasada Complex (MTVAC) in Tirumala on Sunday, the EO said, all the three wings which were launched on April 6, 1985 were the brainchild of the then honourable CM of AP late Sri N T Rama Rao who wished that every pilgrim who visit Tirumala should have a comfortable stay, darshan and Annaprasadam and introduced these innovative schemes for the sake of multitude of visiting pilgrims.

“It is not an easy task to run these departments without any interruption for three decades. And I compliment all the officers, staff members who have rendered impeccable services in these departments for all these years”, he added.

Elaborating further he said, during its inception, the free meals scheme started with just 2000 pilgrims and today its capacity has reached to provide free food to about one lakh pilgrim a day without compromising on quality and taste of food. Every day 1250 staff members and 450 Srivari Sevakulu are regularly rendering services every day to pilgrims in this department. “As on today we have over 591cr of rupees in the form of fixed deposits in Nationalised banks for Annaprasadam Trust. The annual expenditure is Rs.70cr and for which we are using Rs.45cr as interest on FD and remaining Rs.25cr as Matching Grant provided by TTD. In a year on an average over 1.25 to 1.5cr pilgrims are being served by Annaprasasam department not only in MTVAC, but in queue lines, VQCs, foot path, Tirupati and Tiruchanoor also. But there is always scope to improve and we will concentrate on that”, he maintained.

Speaking on Kalyanakatta, he said, the free tonsuring area has witnessed some problems due to dearth of barbers in the KKCs which is also solved from April 1 onwards. Today waiting hours of pilgrims in KKCs is minimised and there are no serpentine queue lines in spite of heavy weekend rush”, he maintained.

Annaprasadam Deputy EO Sri Venugopal, Kalyanakatta Deputy EO Smt Baby Sarojini and others were also present.

ISSUED BY TTDs PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER, TIRUPATI