Notes Ban: Vijayawada Sets a Record

The government’s move to withdraw the currency notes of Rs. 500 and 1000 from circulation has caused numerous problems to the public who in a desperate show of helplessness are turning to Gods. Meanwhile, in a startling show of irony, the entities seeming to benefit most from the same demonetisation move are Gods themselves!

[m9ad]

Indeed, if we look at the figures in Andhra Pradesh itself, the temples across the state have struck gold in the post demonetisation days. If endowment department’s reports are to go by, the hundi collections since November 9 are conservatively estimated at a whopping 180-200 crore. Just a single Hanuman temple in Vijayawada has received a startling sum of 1.05 crore in the past days. In fact, government officials are estimating that the steep increase in hundi collections across the temples could be as high as 20% and it is likely to remain the same until the end of December.

What is curious though is that the Tirumala Tirupati Devstathanam is not seeing any abnormal surge in hundi offerings.