Saptashrungi temple sees lesser devotees come in after demonetisation

Nashik: Unlike banks, the Saptashrungi shrine near Nashik is not seeing many visitors walk in on a daily basis.
According to the residents and priests, demonetization has curbed the number of visitors to the temple since the last two weeks.
“As devotees prefer to visit the temple on Fridays, we were expecting a good rush. But, as people are facing a severe cash crunch, they must have postponed their visits,” said a temple priest, Dinakar Badve.
The Saptashrungi temple, which is one of the four Shakteepeethams in Maharashtra, had less than 2,000 devotees visit on Friday, which is not even one tenth of the general footfall.
“Most devotees visit in large numbers during winters as the weather is pleasant and many auspicious occasions fall in these days,” said V S Thoke, gram sevak of Nanduri village, which is located at the foothills of the ancient temple.
The villagers are the worst hit as they make their income from the visitors. “It’s not often that you see MSRTC buses plying empty between Nanduri and the temple. The villagers, whose income is dependent on the visitors, are suffering huge loss due to a fall in the number of devotees,” said Thoke.
Many villagers have also become jobless. “Some 60 residents, mostly youths from Nanduri village provide ‘doli’ (palanquin) services to the devotees. This time of the year is considered the best for their business. But, due to less number of devotees visiting, most of these youths are now jobless,” said village head Giridhar Gavli.
Small time vendors who sell flowers and puja material are also facing the same problem.
“Firstly, lack of visitors is killing the business. Then, those who are visiting, never have small denomination notes. This is creating another problem for us,” said Radha Shinde, who owns a small kiosk of puja material. The religious destination has no bank or ATM to facilitate the visitors.
Following the directives of the state government, the trust representatives are opening the donation boxes of the temple every day since November 15. But, the donation boxes have nothing more than coins and small denomination notes. “Unlike other big temples in the division, the Saptashrungi temple receives donations at the counter. Devotees drop only coins and small notes in the donation boxes. So, our count is still in thousands,” said Sagar Nichit, senior office-bearer of the trust.