TIRUPATI, INDIA, August 2, 2014 (The Economic Times): A whopping 4,000 lbs. of gold offerings made by devotees of Lord Venkateswara at the famous hill shrine at Tirumala was today deposited with the State Bank of India, taking the total deposits made by it so far with various banks to more than 11,000 lbs.
Executive officer of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which manages the cash-rich temple, M. G. Gopal handed over the gold to State Bank of India (SBI) Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya at the TTD Headquarters here, in the first deposit of the precious metal by the temple in the last two years.
The gold offered by devotees in the hill temple hundi was deposited under SBI Gold Scheme for a period of five years at the rate of interest of one per cent, which effectively would mean addition of 26.5 lbs. of gold per year, Gopal told reporters.