Devotees who throng to the hill shrine of Lord Venkateshwara at Tirumala were shocked on Friday after the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam increased the prices of all prasadam except the famed laddus, by three to seven times.
According to the TTD authorities, the prices of Jilebi has been increased from the present Rs 25 to Rs 70, the rates of the ‘Vada’ has been hiked to Rs 25 from the Rs 4 earlier and the Muruku will now cost the devotees a whopping Rs 30, as against the earlier Rs 4.
As a consolation, prices of the world famous laddu have been spared from being raised. The small laddu continues to be available at the present rate of Rs 25 and the large laddu at Rs 100.
The new prices have come into force from January 28.
The TTD also defended its decision to hike the prices by saying that this has been necessitated following the increase of material and production costs of the prasadams. They also said that the decision has long been overdue.
The price hike resulted in grumblings among the devotees who said that the TTD can easily afford to sell the prasadams at a loss since the temple’s hundi collections alone net it anything from Rs 1 to 2 crore each day.
The devotees also grumbled that by hiking the prices, the TTD is commercializing the devotion and ‘exploiting’ the devotees.