FIVE LAKH SERVED FOOD ON GARUDA SEVA DAY AT TIRUMALA
TIRUMALA TIRUPATI DEVASTHANAMS
FIVE LAKH SERVED FOOD ON GARUDA SEVA DAY AT TIRUMALA
Tirumala, 1 October 2014: It could be a record in the history of public and charitable services that the TTD had successfully provided food for 5lakh persons on the day of Garuda seva, on September 30.
Annaprasadam is one of the priority and significant services of the TTD to the devotees who throng the country’s prominent Vaishnavite hill shrine of Tirumala. ‘Next to darshan, Anna Prasadam is top priority service for us ‘says the Executive Officer Sri M G Gopal.
‘We served 1,05,070 meals at the Tarigonda Vengamamba Annaprasadam complex (TVAC) and nearly 4lakh served food in Vaikuntam queue complex, police, employees, bus stand, foot paths, and at over 25 locations in Tirumala on Garudotsavam‘, says S.Venugopal, the Deputy EO, Annaprasadams at Tirumala.
He said since the serving the seated devotees took more time, buffet was organized in all four massive halls of TVAC so that instead of just 1000 per batch we could served as many as 4000 to meet the huge demand by devotees. ‘Our cooks and staff of 200 worked from 3AM to next day arly morning 2AM non stop‘ he said adding that yesterday they provided food for 22 hours, a national record by itself.
The TTD also provided upma, pongal, vada, sambar rice, curd rice, pulihara, lemon rice, milk coffee, tea and butter milk for devotees in que lines at free-cottages and PAC’s and also in the Vaikuntham Q complex’s. ’It is the dictum of TTD that service to devotees is service to Lord Venkateswara‘, he said.
Venugopal said that the annaprasadam trust which began with just food for 2000 devotees in 1986 had today grown into huge trust which earned an interest of Rs. 50 crore per annum. ‘Our monthly expenditure is Rs.5.5 crore on free meals etc ‘ he said. The TVAC was constructed at a cost of Rs.40 crore through donations and cooking equipment were installed at Rs.5 crore cost.
TTD serving free meals had few parallels in sikh gurudwaras only at Punjab only.‘We have taken que from them on cleaning and hygienic processes both in cooking and serving public. ‘For benefit of north Indian devotees, we are also providing rotis and dal and also set up roti making machine at TVAC ‘ he said.
ISSUED BY THE TTD PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER, TIRUPATI