Who after Sai Baba? Speculation over succession plan

The Satya Sai Trust is always known for service activity and has undertaken massive water supply project in drought-prone Anantapur and other districts of Andhra Pradesh and neighbouring Tamil Nadu besides running major super speciality hospitals in Puttaparthi and Bangalore and holding holding health clinics across the country. The trust also runs educational institutions in different parts of the country.

The Sathya Sai Central Trust runs the university complex, a speciality hospital, a world religious museum Chaitanya Jyoti, a planetarium, a railway station, a hill-view stadium, a music college, an administrative building, an airport, an indoor sports stadium and sport complex in Puttaparthi.

Who after Sai Baba will manage the Trust's activities and what will happen to the social work? Will they continue or stop? These questions are doing the rounds among the followers of the spiritual leader.

Raghuram Chowdhary, an agriculturist in Anantapur town wanted to know what will happen to the good work undertaken by Sai Baba and whether they will continue.

"I am not his devotee but what I feel is whatever work the Baba has done for the public is exemplary. Making available potable water in drought-prone villages of Anantapur district, setting up of medical facilities and educational institutions defintely deserve appreciation," Chowdhary said adding "Baba and his work are defintely good but what about the trust members?".

Laxman Rao, a government employee, said "it was only due to Sai Baba that Puttaparthi town was brought on the world map.

"People and devotees from different parts of the globe come here which has provided them not just peace of mind but also helped grow the income of people in and around Puttaparthi", said Rao.

Sudipto Dutta from West Bengal, whose relative recently underwent treatment for his heart ailment at the super speciality hospital here, said "the poor and the rich both have benefitted from the Baba's blessings. Poor people have access to world class medical treatment while the rich can get free from their worries by performing meditation under the guidance of the Baba".

Meanwhile, a large number of people and anxious devotees continued to throng Puttaparthi and pray for the Baba's recovery. Mahindra Sahu, who led a group of 18 people on a pilgrimage tour to Tirupati two-days ago from Dhule district in Maharashtra, is now in Puttaparthi after they came to know about Baba's deteriorating health.

A group villagers from a bordering village in Bellary district of Karnataka who have been making frequent visits to this place since March 28 when the Baba was admitted in the Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences following problems related to heart ailment and respiration, said "we are praying so that he recovers and gives us darshan soon".