N Indian cuisine on Tirumala menu

Food for all

The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) on Thursday finalised plans to this effect. The temple administration is in the process of procuring a mass roti-making machine. Officials had visited a nearby educational institution which installed one such machine recently.

Before Ugadi, a brand new cost-effective kitchen complex will be place. Not long ago, the temple authorities introduced solar ovens in the Annadanam kitchen.

Huge quantities of rice and dal are cooked using solar power. The TTD move for north Indian dishes is aimed at catering to the needs of the increasing number of north Indian pilgrims who visit Tirumala. According to a rough estimate, of the 45,000 pilgrims who visit the temple every day, half are from the north.

I Y R Krishna Rao, TTD Executive Officer, said the TTD launched the free meal scheme in 1984 in a small way funded through donations. Today, the corpus of the scheme is over Rs 300 crore and the interest earned comes to about Rs 35 crore.

The 24x7 meals scheme costs the TTD Rs 40 crore a year.  Initially the free meals were only for a few and later the scheme was extended to all devotees.

NDMA to conduct mock drill

New Delhi, dhns: In the backdrop of  the Sabrimala tragedy, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)will undertake a mock security exercise at the Tirumala temple on Saturday to check out the emergency preparedness by the temple and the local authorities.

NDMA Vice-Chairman M Shashidhar Reddy told Deccan Herald  that the exercise would test the response in the event of a Sabarimala-like disaster at Tirumala. The plan for the exericse had been finalised long ago, but Sabarimala has given a new edge to it.