Hyderabad, January 29: The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has increased the price of special prasadams at the Tirumala temple.
As they are not sold across the counter and are given only to VIPs and Arjita Seva ticket-holders, the burden would not be felt by the general devotees.
Laddu, the main prasadam, which is sold across the counter, has, however, been exempted from the price hike. Its price will remain at Rs 25 only.
According to TTD joint executive officer K Bhaskar, the hike in the price is applicable only to prasadams that are given to devotees who go in for Arjita Seva. Since the prasadam price is also included in the Arjita Seva, the devotees would not have to pay anything extra. But if they want to have additional prasadam, they will have to pay a higher price.
“We prepare these prasadams – jilebis, dosas, wadas, murukulu – in a very limited quantity, for giving them to the devotees as a part of Arjita Seva and to the VIPs. If anyone of them wants more, we keep them ready to suffice the requirement of say about 400 devotees on any given day,” Bhaskar told ENS from Tirumala.
“The prices of these prasadams had been fixed long ago and have not been revised since then. Hence we had to do it now. It would have no impact on devotees as the hike applies to prasadams sought by VIPs or Arjita Seva ticket-holders,” Bhaksar said.
Apart from laddus, the temple prepares small quantities of 12 varieties of prasadams for Arjita Seva ticket- holders. “There is a lot of difference between the cost of production and the price at which they are being sold. This is the reason why the TTD has hiked the prices,” the JEO said.
–Agencies