Shirdi, Jul 24: More than Rs 10 lakh worth gold, silver and cash were donated by thousands of devotees to Shirdi Sai Baba on the occasion of Guru Poornima, a 3-day festival held here annually. 

More than 200 Sai devotees and volunteers were engaged in the counting operation. 

Last year nearly Rs 4 crore worth gold, silver and cash were donated by thousands of devotees to the shrine, this included Rs 3.30 crore in cash, 723 grams gold ornaments and 5 kg of silver.   

The donations this year were higher because of a large influx of NRI and foreign national devotees who flocked to Shirdi on the occasion of Guru Poornima. 

The Sansthan had to use note counting machines to count the huge amount of cash donated by the devotees. The coins were collected in a large number of pails. The currency notes included Indian rupees, Euros, US dollars and British pounds.  

Currency notes from 31 countries were found in the donation box. These include 5,493 US dollars compared to 2,264 US dollars collected last year. 620 British pounds were donated compared to 185 British pounds donated last year.

Source: India Tv, July 24, 2013