TIRUPATI: The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has decided to shelve the trial run of the Sampradaya Bhojanam (traditional meals) at Tirumala after it was accused of commercialising the scheme.
“Any type of food that is served to devotees in Tirumala is offered as Swamivari prasadam and it should be free of cost and not even be on a cost-to-cost basis. Hence, I asked officials to scrap the trial run (of Sampradaya Bhojanam scheme,” TTD chairman Y.V. Subba Reddy said while addressing media persons at Tirumala on Monday.
It may be recalled that TTD on Thursday had started the trial run of traditional meals to promote desi cow products, organic and natural farming. The trial was scheduled to be held till September 2. However, several people had criticised TTD accusing it of commercialising the Annaprasadam scheme (free meals scheme), prompting the TTD chairman to scrap the scheme at the trial stage itself.
While asserting that serving Nitya Annaprasadam for the devotees at Tirumala is an everlasting seva, the TTD chairman said, “The officials had introduced the Sampradaya Bhojanam with a good intention during the absence of the TTD trust board. As any type of food served at Tirumala is offered as Swamivari prasadam, we have decided to discontinue the serving of traditional meals from today after consulting the officials.”
He also claimed that some people were spreading fake news on social media and threatened to take legal action against them. He also appealed to the devotees not to believe such false propaganda against TTD.
Responding to a query, the chairman said that the temple administration would take a decision on commencing free darshan after taking the views of the officials of district administration and the medical and health department over the prevailing Covid-19 situation.
After participating in the Gokulastami celebrations at S.V. Goshala in Tirupati along with TTD executive officer Dr K.S. Jawahar Reddy, the TTD chairman said efforts were made to procure butter from desi cows and other cow-based organic products for the Navaneeta Seva and Srivari Organic Naivedyam Prasadam which commenced from May 1.
