Tirupati: Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has decided to make and sell golden ‘Mangalsutras’, weighing 5 gm and 10 gm, on a cost-to-cost basis to the devotees visiting Tirumala. The decision was taken at the TTD's trust board meeting held at Tirumala on Monday.
Disclosing details of the resolutions passed by the trust board, TTD chairman Bhumana Karunakar Reddy said the TTD will make golden ‘Mangalsutras’ in about 4-5 designs and will place them at the feet of Lord Venkateswara Swamy for the divine blessings and will later sell them without any profit to prospective brides.
Explaining the rationale behind selling blessed ‘mangalsutras’, Bhumana said, "The Hindu marital system is known for its sanctity, with women strongly believing in wearing the ‘mangalsutra’ as a great bond. During my previous term, TTD performed 32,000 mass marriages for poor couples through the Kalyanamasthu programme.
None converted to other religions in 17 years.
Selling mangalsutras with Lord Venkateswara's blessings will further strengthen the marital bonds".
The TTD chairman thanked Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy for all the support extended by the government to address the pending issues for almost three decades of its employees regarding house sites and for fulfilling the dreams of thousands of TTD employees to own a house plot.
He said that the board has now resolved to create over 500 religious posts in TTD-run sub-temples and taken over temples, subject to state government approval.
Other key resolutions made by the board include wage increases for contract workers across TTD departments, increasing Vedic school teachers' salaries from Rs 35,000 to Rs 54,000, upgrading jobs and hike wages of cleaners, cooks and workers in electrical, water works and other departments.
To promote traditional arts, salaries of sculptors at the TTD-run Sri Venkateswara Traditional Sculpture and Architecture Institute will be enhanced.
The board also approved implementing the Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP system over the next five years to enable transparent and efficient TTD governance.
Upgrading the Tirumala Annamayya building's conference hall with audio-visual technology was also cleared.
To serve rising demand, the SVIMS hospital beds will increase from 300 to 1,200. Rs 148 crores were sanctioned to renovate the five-decade-old building.
Over `30 crore was cleared to upgrade the Akashaganga to Outer Ring Road to ease traffic in Tirumala.
More than `9 crore sanctioned for developing Saptagiri guest houses and renovating Sri Venkateswara rest houses in Tirumala.
The board also approved funds for constructing the Rajagopuram and stone walls around the ancient Sri Bhadrakali Sametha Veerabhadra Swamy temple in Narayanavanam.
