Tirumala Devotees Offer Rs 24 Crore Scrapped Notes After Demonetization

Tirupati: Demonetised notes worth over Rs 24 crore have been offered by devotees in the Hundi in the famous hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara in the last six months, according to temple official.

Anil Kumar Singhal, executive officer of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which governs the hill shrine told the media on Monday that more than Rs 24 crore worth of demonetized Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were deposited by devotees in the Hundi of the Tirumala Venkateshwara Swamy temple in the last six months.

“In the wake of recent Supreme Court order we will be writing a letter today or tomorrow to RBI and the Centre about the demonetized notes offered by devotees as fulfillment of their vows," he said.

On July 4, the Supreme Court granted the Centre and Reserve Bank of India two weeks to consider the option of granting a window to those who could not deposit their demonetized Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes for a compelling reason.

The Centre had on November 8, 2016 announced that these notes would no longer be legal tender from November 9.

The government also assured the people that demonetized currency notes could be exchanged at banks, post offices and RBI branches till December 30, 2016. If people were unable to deposit them by that day, they could do so till March 31, 2017 at RBI branches after complying with certain formalities.

Later, speaking to media persons at the Tirupati Press Club Singhal said that with the recent revision of interest rates in banks on fixed deposits, TTD would lose a few hundred crores of rupees on its FDs of around Rs10,000 crore in various nationalized banks.

The interest rates on TTD deposits would be cut from between eight and nine per cent to 4.5 per cent following the recent revision of interest rates on fixed deposits by banks, he said.

To a question on the growing weight of huge ornamentation in form of heavy gold jewellery offered by cash rich devotees and other floral objects on the main deity, Singhal who took charge as Executive Office of the shrine two months ago, said that he was new to this matter and certainly look into it.