TTD wants Centre to monetise Rs 51 crore worth of old currency notes offered by devotees

The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which manages the country’s richest temple of Lord Venkateshwara in Andhra Pradesh’s Tirumala, wants an exchange of old currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 worth nearly Rs 51 crore more than three-and-a-half years after the Centre had demonetised them.

TTD trust board chairperson YV Subba Reddy, who met Union finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman in New Delhi on Monday, put forth the request of monetising the old currency notes offered by devotees over a period of time.

Reddy said he had made a representation to the Union finance minister in this regard and requested her to look into the issue in view of the precarious financial situation of the TTD on account of the coronavirus pandemic.

“I told her that pilgrims consider extending offerings to the hundi (cash chest associated with the temple where devotees drop money) very sacred and a great deal of sentiments are attached with it and the TTD cannot reject the offerings,” the chairperson said while speaking to HT.

Reddy said following the central government’s decision on demonetisation on November 8, 2016, the TTD, too, had stopped collecting the banned currency in the denomination of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 at all its sale counters across the country as per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines.

“However, the TTD has no say when it comes to the offerings made by the devotees in the temple hundi. They continued to make cash offerings in the demonetised currency of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, even after the closure of window period announced by the RBI for exchange of demonetised currency notes,” he said.

The finance minister assured Reddy that she would talk to the central bank authorities and see what best she could do in this regard.