5 days ago
Shirdi temple receives 6 crore in donations during Guru Purnima
Nashik: The Shirdi Saibaba temple collected over Rs6.3 crore as donations from devotees during the three-day Guru Purnima festival from July 9 to 11.
The CEO of Shree Saibaba Sansthan Trust (SSST) in Shirdi, Goraksha Gadilkar, said that the footfall at the temple during the festival was over three lakhs.
He said, "We received over Rs 1.8 crore in cash in the donation boxes. Similarly, a section of the devotees donated over Rs 1.1 crore at the donation counters and over Rs 2 crore through debit/credit cards, online donations, cheques, pass fees and money orders. Some devotees also donated gold and silver worth over Rs 63 lakh," he added.
Furthermore, over 1.8 lakh devotees had food at the Prasadalay and more than 1.7 lakh devotees in queues were distributed 'prasad'.
Meanwhile, the SSST also collected Rs 64 lakh through the sale of Bundi Laddo packets.
There were devotees from other parts of the country, especially from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Thousands of devotees stayed at the additional pandal set up for Guru Purnima, apart from the accommodation facility of Sai Prasad Niwas Sthan, Saibaba Bhakta Niwas Sthan, Dwarvati Niwas Sthan, Sai Ashram Niwas Sthan, and Sai Dharam Shala.
Gadilkar added that the donations from devotees will be used for SSST's Prasadalay, hospitals, and for providing other facilities to the devotees.
