TTD to hire retired bankmen for counting

TIRUMALA: TTD executive Officer L V Subramanyam said that TTD is committed to  protect Hindu sanatana dharma and propogate greatness of Lord Venkateswara. In this direction it has undertaken several programmes.Participating in the monthly ‘Dial Your EO’ programme held at Annamaiah Bhavan, here on Friday, he briefed the audience about  developmental activities by the TTD.  “The TTD has performed Saraswati Maha Yagam in Tirupati, keeping in view welfare of the students in the country on March 7. We have sought blessing from Goddess Saraswati for successful outcome during this examination period. For the first time TTD has conducted Sri Kodandarama Swamy brahmotsavams in Tirupati, in a grand manner, as lakhs of devotees converged to witness the mega event. Even the ‘Vastra Bahuman’ scheme and ‘Rama Koti’ have also become a huge success. For the first time silk vastrams have been presented to presiding deities by staffs of Bhadrachalam and Ontimitta devasthanams. We are planning to perform Sri Govinda Raja brahmotsavams on similar lines in a grand manner, in May,” he explained.The EO said that TTD has decided to perform 150 Srinivasa Kalyanams in a year and a cluster of celestial marriages have been planned in USA between April 28 and June 2. “We are also contemplating to conduct Srinivasa Kalyanamas in Mauritius, Canada, Japan, Singapore and Sri Lanka,” he added.The proposed temple at Kanyakumari costing `22 cr and the decision to utilise services of retired/in-service bank/insurance employees for counting the Srivari Hundi collection, for speeding up the process, were also explained during the programme.Later, he received calls from pilgrims and answered several, of which some of them are as follows.To a call from Shivashankar from Kadapa, EO said TTD has decided to conduct three-week summer camps for students who have completed Intermediate and train them in spiritual scriptures like Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagawat Gita, and Bhagavatham.Responding to Shiva Shanker’s call from Tirupati, he said TTD has already decided to provide free breakfast and meals even at Galigopuram for the pilgrims trekking the hill shrine from Alipiri and it will be implemented in couple of weeks.Answering Somasekhar from Hyderabad, he said TTD will rectify existing drawbacks in its website and make it more pilgrim-friendly.