Shirdi Sai Baba temple receives donations worth Rs 14.54 crore in just 11 days

Shirdi: The famous Sai Baba temple at Shirdi in Maharashtra received donations worth Rs 14.54 crore over the 11-day period starting before Christmas and ending on the New Year day, an official said. “The devotees, from within the country as well as abroad, donated Rs 8.05 crore in the donation boxes kept in the temple premises between 22 December, 2018 and 1 January, 2019,” Shri Sai Baba Sansthan Trust’s vice chairman Chandrashekhar Kadam told reporters in Shirdi on Wednesday. “The temple trust also received Rs 6 crore through online donations, debit and credit cards, cheques, demand drafts and at its donation counters,” he said. [caption id=“attachment_111662” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational Image. Agencies[/caption] Gold and silver items worth Rs 19 lakh were also donated, he said. In addition to this, devotees from 19 countries, including USA, the UK, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan and China, donated foreign currencies worth Rs 30.63 lakh. “Apart from these donations, the temple trust earned Rs 3.62 crore through paid passes issued to visitors and the online darshan facility provided by the temple management,” Kadam said. Nearly 9.5 lakh devotees from different parts of the country and abroad visited the Sai Baba temple, located at Shirdi town in Ahmednagar district, during the 11-day period, he added.