Mumbai: Forget the long serpentine queues, come July you could simply donate blood (250-300 ml) and get a VIP darshan at the Siddhivinayak temple, Prabhadevi.
The temple authorities in Mumbai have decided to give free VIP darshan passes to those who donate blood at the temple. A VIP cost for Lord Ganesha’s darshan at Siddhivinayak usually costs around Rs 1,000. The Saibaba temple in Shirdi and the Tirupati temple in Andhra Pradesh too have implemented same schemes for their devotees.
The initiative aims to address the shortage of blood in the city. Currently, the city needs about Rs 1,000 units of blood every day but the blood banks have only 500-600 units of blood available with them to meet the daily demands. The information about the free VIP passes in lieu of blood donation will be displayed on the temple’s website and campus soon, said sources.
It is estimated that around 30,000 devotees visit the Siddhivinayak temple every day with the numbers going up to 35,000 on Tuesdays.
Talking to The Asian Age, Sanjeev Patil, the CEO of Siddhivinayak Temple said, “In the coming days, we will arrange for the needful and will the start accepting blood donations. Hoarding will be put in the temple premises to announce the commencement of the initiative.”
To tackle the issue of blood shortage, the State Blood Transfusion Council (SBTC) has ordered all city-based and government-run blood banks to organise blood donation drives at all the major railway stations.
A senior SBTC official said, “On June 7, SBTC had written a letter to the various civic-run blood banks to arrange for donation camps at railway stations and other public places in the city.
