Mansa Devi gets over Rs 1 crore in donations

There were a total of 280 donations,and a couple of unusual donations by the devotees were registered under the ‘miscellaneous’ category apart from the other regular items that are donated. “We have around ten categories under which most donations are classified and a bill is generated for each of them. These are received with the name of the donor and are sent to our store room for collection,” says Satnam,who sits at the collection counter at the back gate of the temple.

The categories for the donations include desi ghee,steel utensils,suits and sarees,shirt cloth pieces,brass bells and ceiling fans. “Most of the donations are received during the day time,before 4 pm,when the number of visitors is maximum,” says Satnam. He says that of all the donations,the number of desi ghee donations comprise of almost fifty percent of them. He says that cloth pieces and steel and brass items also comprise of almost 40 percent of the donations. There are many who donate various pieces of steel utensils,with one of them donating a single spoon.

Of the 4,94,000 visitors who paid obeisance at the temple this Navratri,a total amount of Rs 1,00,65,612 was donated. Additionally,52 gold and 163 silver items were also donated in the temple by the devotees. There have been donations in foreign currencies too,including 56 Canadian,7 Australian and 175 American dollars. Around 40 English pounds were also donated.

“Around 30 percent of the donations this time were secret with some families who visited each day and donated something. Depending on how much they can afford almost everyone donates something,starting from Rs 10,” says Satnam.

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