This initiative will be undertaken in partnership with Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) and the support of Andhra Pradesh government. The new kitchen will feature advanced automation and the capacity to prepare and serve over 2,00,000 meals every day to ensure that every devotee is served nutritious Anna Prasadam.
The announcement came after a visit of Mukesh Ambani to Tirumala on Sunday morning.
Tirumala stands as an eternal symbol of faith, compassion, and selfless service. “Through this effort, we are humbled to contribute to N. Chandrababu Naidu’s noble vision of extending the Anna Seva tradition to all the TTD temples”, a company press release said on Sunday.
Ambani also visited Guruvayur Sri Krishna temple, located in the town of Guruvayur, Thrissur in Kerala. He donated Rs 15 crore to the temple.
There is no doubt that in our Hindu religion , “annadaanam”
or charitable feeding of pilgrims is a very ancient and cherished tradition or custom .
However , reading the above news item makes one wonder if this mega-project proposal serves religious charitable purpose or whether it is PR extravaganza catering more to the spirit of religious tourism than to that of genuine yaathra.
The average daily traffic of pilgrims to Tirumala in the last several years has been around 50,000 footfalls only a day rising occasionally to 100,000 on very important festive days. There is thus present on the Hills already quite adequate installed-capacity to provide free annadaanam to the current level of pilgrim traffic . What then is the need for increasing the capacity to feed 200,000 people daily on the tiny hill-temple town of Lord Venkateshwara that has already been turned today into a concrete jungle and a jostling , teeming hub of religious tourism chockablock with tens of thousands arriving there every day ?
Where is due consideration being given in this proposal to matters such as ecological balance , to flora and fauna of these sacred hill ranges of Tirumala ?
What does an independent environmental impact assessment study have to tell us about the glaring risks faced in turning Tirumala temple town into a gigantic religious restaurant for 200,000 pilgrims ?
Is this truly religious spirit ?
Should yaathris be only furthermore encouraged to go to the temple atop the hills in even ever larger massive droves keen only on feeding themselves on the hills right after the darshan ? Why not construct such a massive eatery somewhere else downhill in the muncipal spaces of the Tirupati City?
Why is this corporate mega-project being granted permission to defile the sacred environs of The Hills of Tiruvenkatam even more than it already has been ?
Sudarshan Madabushi
Well said. Nevertheless, an equally valid question might be why our society provides motorized and subsidized transportation from Tirupati town up to the Tirumalai hill for ABLE BODIED people? And may so many of these abusers make multiple trips per year or month. And there are those who hurry up there for weekly quickies. Legend has it Emberumanar would go up the hills on his knees so as not to touch the ground with his feet. If our society would stop all vehicular traffic up and down the hill intended to convey able bodied devotees, all other problems of “defilement” would disappear.