Now seek postal blessings from Goddess Padmavathi too

Tirupati: With the success of ‘Ashirvachanam’ scheme aimed at devotees who send donations to Lord Venkateswara, the Department of Posts, Tirupati division, has extended the services for the devotees to present offerings to Goddess Padmavathi of Tiruchanoor. The department has tied up with the Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) to implement the new service.

Under the ‘Ashirvachanam’ scheme, devotees who donate to Lord Venkateswara of Tirumala through money orders (MOs), would get a photo of the deity and ‘akshintalu’ by the Department of Posts irrespective of the donation amount.

The scheme was an instant success which yielded huge profits for the department. The Tirupati division handled only 3,615 money orders in 2009 during the first year of the scheme towards donations to TTD amounting to Rs 4.45 lakh which helped them net a profit of Rs 21,127. 

Within a year the number of MOs have gone up to 2.53 lakh through which TTD got Rs 2.75 crore and the net profit has registered a steep increase to Rs 14.88 lakh and was showing steady progress since then. Between 2009 and August 2018, TTD got a sum of Rs 27.75 crore towards donations through postal MOs fetching the department a revenue of Rs 142.98 lakh.

Explaining that the Padmavathi Ammavaru scheme is not gaining momentum, Superintendent of Posts, Tirupati division, G Sreenivasa Murthy, said that donations were less in number and the devotees were not getting anything in return like the photo of the deity and ‘akshintalu’.

In this backdrop, the officials have approached the TTD to provide yellow thread for which puja will be performed by keeping it before the Goddess along with kumkum, photo of the deity and ‘akshintalu’ for which they have agreed.