Tirumala

Demat

devotees

India’s richest shrine(Tirupati) Balaji temple has opened aaccount for donations fromin the form of shares and securities. This is perhaps the first-of-its-kind donation facility in the world.Central Depositories Services Limited officials, led by its chairman N Rangachari and CEO PS Reddy, met Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) executive officer D Sambasiva Rao at Tirumala on Monday and handed over the Demat papers. TTD has its Demat account in Stock Holding Corporation of India Limited bearing the account No. 1601010000384828.“The idea was to provide every possible facility to the devotees to offer donations to the temple. We are expecting a tremendous response because many people will be interested in donating in the form of electronically held shares and securities,” a TTD official told Mirror.The Tirumala temple had earlier introduced online donations and donations in the form of foreign currency, besides the traditional ways of offering in the form of Indian currency, gold, silver, and other forms including grains for implementation of its various schemes and programmes.On Monday, textile major Raymonds donated 540 woollen rugs worth Rs 6.5 lakh to the Tirumala temple.