Durga temple earns 7.68 crore revenue

Vijayawada: Sri Durga Malleswara Swamyvarla Devasthanam (Durga temple) earned income of Rs 4.73 crore (cash) during the five days of Bhavani Deeksha relinquishment from December 15 to 19.

Last year, the temple got income of Rs 3.98 crore during the Bhavani Deeksha Viramana. More than 5.40 lakh devotees visited the temple during the Bhavani Deeksha Viramana in 2022. Due to lifting of Covid restrictions a large number of devotees have been visiting the temple for the past few months and on average more than 1 lakh devotees had darshan of the presiding deity during each of the five-day period of the Bhavani Deeksha Viramana. In 2020, only 1.50 lakh devotees visited the temple during the Bhavani Deeksha Viramana and 3.50 lakh devotees visited in 2021.

Addressing the media on Saturday, temple Executive Officer D Bhramaramba said laddu sales also increased in 2022 compared to previous year 2021. More than 15 lakh laddus were purchased by the devotees in 2022 compared to 13.5 lakh laddus in 2021.

She said the darshan timings were also increased this year for the convenience of devotees and devotees were allowed into temple from 2 am onwards. She informed that 700 barbers were on duty in three shifts for tonsuring the heads of devotees near the bathing ghats of River Krishna.

The EO said more than 82,000 devotees got their heads tonsured in 2022 as against 56,000 devotees last year. She said free prasadam was distributed to 78,614 devotees and three homa gundams were arranged this year.

She said the devotees offered gold articles weighing 548 grams and silver articles weighting 31.35 kg. She said the temple earned total revenue of 7.68 crore during the Bhavani Deeksha Viramana in 2022 and incurred expenditure of Rs six crore. Similarly, the temple earned Rs 6.15 crore last year and incurred expenditure of Rs.4.50 crore.

The EO said the Bhavani Deeksha Viramana was completed successfully without any untoward incident and thanked NTR District Collector S Dilli Rao, Commissioner of Police Kanthi Rana Tata and VMC Commissioner Swapnil Dinkar Pundkar for extending co-operation. She also thanked the media and Red Cross Society for their support to ensure the successful conduct of Deekha Viramana.