“ASEERVACHANAM “ -  SCHEME TO BE EXTENDED TO MAJOR TEMPLES IN A.P :-

HYDERABAD: Encouraged by the good response to the scheme, the postal department has decided to extend its facility of delivering prasadam to devotees who send contributions to temples via money order from the existing TTD-run temples to many more in the state. At present, devotees who send their monetary contributions to Tirumala through money order receive small packets containing 'Akshatahlu' (turmeric-mixed rice grains), pasupu (turmeric), kumkum and a photograph of the deity. The prasadam is kept at the Tirumala post office from where it is dispatched to the address of the devotees who send the contributions through the money order in what is called the 'Aseervachanam' scheme. The delivery of the prasadam takes place in about a week after the money order is sent. This scheme was launched in August this year and has seen about 30,000 money orders delivered to Lord Venkateswara of Tirumala so far.  Now, the scheme is to be extended to many more temples. "We have received a tremendous response to the 'Aseervachanam' scheme from devotees in AP and Karnataka. We approached the endowments department to implement the scheme in other major temples and the latter issued specific orders to top officers of various temples to implement the scheme in coordination with India Post," chief postmaster general, A P circle, B V Sudhakar told TOI. The scheme will be extended to other temples from December 1, he said.

The major temples where the 'Aseervachanam' scheme is to be implemented include Durga Malleswara temple (Vijayawada), Varaha Narasimha temple (Simhachalam), Bramarambha Mallikarjuna temple (Srisailam), Veera Venkata Satyanarayana (Annavaram), Seetha Ramachandra (Bhadrachalam), Vinayaka (Kanipakam), Lakshmi Narasimham swamy (Yadagirigutta), Suryadeva (Arasavilli), Sri Kurmam (Srikakulam), Kaleswara swamy (Karimnagar), Narasimha swamy (Ahobilam) and others., Shiva temple (Mahanandi), Bheemeswara (Draksharamam), Ksheera Ramalingeswara swamy (Palkol), Raja Rajeswari temple (Vemulawada), Narasimha temple (Kadiri), Veera Brahmendra swamy (Yaganti) and Venkateswara swamy (Dwaraka Tirumala).// times of india//