The ‘Udayasthamana’ seva ticket, under which devotees can take part in all rituals performed inside the Lord Venkateswara temple at Tirumala from dawn to dusk, would be bestowed on patrons donating ₹1 crore or above to the temple hundi, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) said.
The donation would be used for the construction of a proposed paediatric super-specialty hospital in Tirupati.
While devotees contributing ₹1 crore would be allowed to take part in all rituals from Suprabhatam to Ekantha seva at midnight on any day of the week except Friday once a year along with five family members, those contributing ₹1.50 crore would be permitted to avail the benefit on any day of the week including Friday, on which day ‘Abhishekam’ is offered to the deity. Donors would be allowed to avail the benefit once a year for 25 years.
TTD Additional Executive Officer A.V. Dharma Reddy said that the tickets would be made available online in order to ensure transparency and to enable devotees from across the world avail the offer.
The Udayasthamana Sarva Seva Endowments Scheme (USSES) was introduced in 1982 wherein the cost of each ticket was pegged at ₹1 lakh. The price of the ticket was revised to ₹10 lakh in 2006, and was later discontinued. At present, there are 531 tickets available under the scheme.
A ten-acre land has been identified for the construction of the proposed paediatric facility in the vicinity of the Balaji Institute of Surgery, Research and Rehabilitation for Disabled (BIRRD) where a cardiology wing for children has already been constructed and over 16 open heart surgeries performed in a month.
Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, who inaugurated the cardiac wing during the recent Brahmotsavams, underscored the need to transform the facility into a multi-disciplinary paediatric hospital equipped with urology, neurology, nephrology, pulmonology, ophthalmology, dermatology, and oncology departments and extend quality and free medical treatment/surgeries to children from poor, economically backward and weaker sections.
While ₹200 crore is required for the construction of the hospital, another ₹200–300 crore would be required for the purchase of medical equipment, setting up infrastructure facilities and recruitment of medical staff.
The TTD is also planning to seek the support of corporate firms to donate to the cause from their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds. Surplus donations, if any, would be diverted to a corpus fund which would help meet future needs, Mr. Dharma Reddy said.
