Chittorgarh temple receives hefty donations in new notes
BOOM TIME Temple gets ₹8.8 lakh as offerings in new ₹2,000 notes between Nov 8 and 28
JAIPUR: Even as the country is reeling under cash crunch with people often having to return empty-handed from banks, Sanwaliya Ji temple in Chittorgarh has a surplus of new ₹2,000 and ₹500 notes.
The temple has received ₹8.8 lakh as offerings in new ₹2,000 notes between November 8 and 28, twenty days since the government decided to demonetise old currency notes of ₹500 and ₹1,000. “We opened our donation box on Monday only to find 441 new currency notes of ₹2,000. Notwithstanding currency crisis, people have donated generously. The offerings in the last two months totaled up to ₹4.5 crore,” said Bhagwan Lal Chaturvedi, administrative officer of the temple.
For the past few days, the temple administration has been busy counting donation money amidst high security and 14 CCTV cameras.
“We are not done yet. We are still counting donation money received in notes of small denominations. In fact, the temple has also received increased number of cheques this year,” said Chaturvedi.
The Sanwalia Ji temple is one of the most visited temples in the state, particularly popular among the Vaishnav sect.
“Police have been deployed in large numbers on temple premises to avoid any untoward incident during counting of donation money,” said Hajari Lal, station house officer, Badsora in Chittorgarh.