Final reports - Toilets in Sriperumbutturas a much needed Kaimkaryam for Pilgrims .

[Guest guest]

Dear Sishya Paramparais of Bhagavath RaamAnuja:

 

Daasan Sadagopan " s PraNamams .

 

For the past two weeks , a lot of exploratory work

has been going on at Chennai, SriperumbhUdhUr and here

to undertake a nontypical Kaimkaryam at the birth place of

Bhagavath RaamAnujA in tune with this year's Birthday

Festivals .

 

His avathAra dinam is May 2 and close to ONE LAK OF

PILGRIMS WILL BE visiting DURING THESE FESTIVITIES

THAT CAPS ON MAY 2.

 

The desperation of the pilgrims and particularly Women

and children during their visits to the temple premises

for offering their worships is readily imaginable. They

have travelled a long distance by bus or car or foot .

 

It is hot . They look for a place to answer the nature's calls

after or before the darsanam inside the temple . They wish to

wash their feet before entering the sacred premises .There is

none available at the perimeter of the temple .The locals

are overwhelmed and shut the door on these desperate people

to use their homes . It is understandable reluctance given

the size of the crowd. This unfortunate situation ends up

in creating the most unsanitary conditions around the temple.

SriperumbhUdhUr does not have the infra structure support of

Thiruppathy-Thirumala KshEthram .

 

Few of us who have been debating about this problem have been

ably guided by Sri ManorAm Das of Chennai ; he has been shuttling

between SriperumbhUthUr and Chennai and ISKCON offices in

Chennai to hammer out a construction program of Sanitary

Facilities at SriperumbhUdhUr in time for this year's RaamAnuja

Jayanthy ( May 2). Details of his Engineering plan and cost

estimates for a modest facility is attached .

 

The essence of this plan is to start right away and finish the work

with the help of a reliable construction firm and provide protection

services after the Uthsavam is over to protect the investments

for future times . Extra care has been taken to avoid price inflations

and gouging at all levels with close supervision .

 

The estimated cost is 3.75 Laks of Rupees , which comes to $8,500

in US Currency .

 

The plan is to construct 6 Toilets and 2 bath rooms for the Ladies .

The gents will have 6 Toilets , 5 Urinals and 3 showers . The unit cost

for the 12 toilets, 5 showers and 5 urinals for men would be $8,500

divided by 22 items of uneven costs: $383 /Unit or Rs.16,872 .

The ground has been given free by the temple authorities .

 

100 Devotees supporting by $85 /per person would be able to

cover the expenses . Clearly a higher level of support by the individuals

or groups from India and Overseas will speed up the process .

 

Sorry we did not have additional time to announce

the project earlier .

 

There are multiple ways to supprot this project from India & Overseas :

 

1. If you are in USA or overseas and if you have paypal or Master Card

or Visa accounts , you can make a payment online. You have to go to

http://www.dasanudas.org and choose the method of payment

from the " participate " hyperlink on the left side of the home page.

You have to mention that your contribution is ear marked for

the Sri PerumbhUthur Project .

 

All of your Tax contributions are Tax deductible in USA.

 

2. If you are in India , You can send it to Sri G.N.Balaji,

T.Nagar Chennai . His ICICI account is given below . You

can also send e-mail to Sri Manoramdas at :

manoramjps

 

3. Sriman M.K.Sudarshan of Kuwait has met with Sri Manoram

earlier this week in Chennai and he will be coordinating the donations

from Kuwait ans Middle East . Please contact him at :

mksudarshan2002

 

4. Please also contact me if you need any help from my end .

 

Please keep me informed about your participation

details to keep track of the needed support funds .

Thank you all for your anticipated Support .

 

RaamAnuja Daasan, V.Sadagopan

 

 

Details on the Project from Sri Manoramdas :

 

*******************************************************

* Thursday, April 20, 2006 6:19 AM ***************

* Final reports - Toilets in Sriperumbuttur.******

********************************************************

 

 

Dear Vaishnavas,

 

Dandavats Pranams!

 

 

Project report:

 

I met the Sriperumbuttur temple officials and they

were happy to discuss the project and initiate project

.The executive officer told me that until date the

sanctioned fund from the Govt. had not reached and

also there is no information on the matter. He also

told me that things could change in the allotment of

funds for this project as the Tamilnadu elections are

expected to be held in the near future.

 

Many priests in the temple are extremely happy with

our initiative to initiate this project of

constructing toilets for pilgrims. Around 5000

pilgrims visit the temple for the monthly Thiruvadarai

festival and around 200 to 300 pilgrims visit the

temple on a daily basis.

 

For the yearly 10day festival the plgrim inflow is

around 1,00,000. Priests in the temple are requesting

to start the project without any delay and if possible

complete it for the festival. The festival has begun

and the main festival days are on the April 30th,May

1st and May 2nd is the Appearence day of Sri Ramanuja

acharya.

 

The present Toilets: This place was previously a

temple cowshed (go shala) and the temple has

constructed 2 toilets in this place and sending these

pictures in few hrs time.

 

The present toilet place is 3 minutes a walk able

distance from the Main temple entrance. Most of the

time toilets are locked and only used by temple

authorities and if requested they are opened for the

piligrims. There are also no signboards indicating the

present place as toilets.

 

The temple authorities told me to use this place for

construction of the new toilets. Actually this is a

nice place as it is situated close to the temple and

on the main road toward the bus stand. The pilgrims

can easily identify this place and there will be also

signboards to direct the pilgrims toward this place.

 

The authorities of the temple have given full freedom

for the construction of the toilets.

 

The toilet site: Apart from the 2 toilets the whole

area is rough .In some places there are shrubs and

plants growing. There is also no water facility in

this place. Need to dig a bore well and create a small

tank in this place for water facility. I have not

mentioned this in the plan posted yesterday as the

list was drafted in an emergency and most things have

not been mentioned in the draft.

 

Site plan: There will be 6 toilets and 2 bath rooms

for the Ladies and 6 toilets, 5 urinal outlets and 3

showers for the gents.

 

Time: The total time required for the project

completion is 8 days. Need to do a little marathon

work with quality as the priority.

 

MR Shiva Kumar - Civil engineer: I know him for last 4

yrs and I am confident that he will show excellent

results. We are paying him labour charges and all the

requisite materials are supplied to him.

 

Monitors: There will be 3 devotees staying in

sriperumbuttur from the time of initiation until till

the completion of work.

 

They are:

Tirthanga chaitanya prabhu: 53 yrs old - : has

monitored a construction project in Sri Rangam and has

good knowledge in construction part. He travels to

villages, does small congregational programmers for

the villagers and initiates them into the path of

vaishnavism. vounteers himself for all Vaishnava

projects.

 

Krsna prem Prabhu:24 yrs old and is a Distributor of

Vaishnava literatures. He is an dynamic devotee and

can moniter the purchases and stocks.

 

Murali Prabhu: 33 yrs old and also a Distributor of

Vaishnava literature. He will be assisting Tirthanga

prabhu.

 

Thier contact nos are :9384516886 and 9380307147

 

Dasanu Dasanu International Charities:(Vaishnava

charitable trust involved in Village school programmes

and Prasadam distribution programmes OR Food relief

programmes)

 

To Start our work, The Sriperumbudur temple has to

give me a letter authorization authorizing me to work

in their place and they needed an organization name

and I have no charitable trust registered and there is

no time to start a charitable trust. I had a close

friend from ISKCON congregation named Sri

Sadasivananda das prabhu, dedicated devotee for the

last 18 yrs and approached him for help to use his

trust name and he happily agreed to help me in

whatever way he could. I also asked him whether we can

use his Charitable Trust to receive money from

overseas and he said there is no problem as long as I

give all the accounts in details.

 

I am heading the project under this name as the temple

authorities wanted me to give an organization name. I

am also sending the letter from the temple management

authorizing this trust to take over the construction

for the Toilets.

 

Dasanu dasa international charities are registered in

America 3 yrs before and can receive online donations.

Please visit his site for more details:

www.dasanudas.org and to receive more details of the

trust please read the Mission Statement under the menu

bar.

 

I think there is tax exemptions facility for donors

from America.

I request Vaishnavas to send their contributions

through this charitable trust. Otherwise send your

contributions to this account

:G.N.Balaji,Chennai

T,Nagar ICICI Account number :602301502499.

 

Accounts and products used: I will produce the entire

bill, labour charges and expenditures involved in this

project and the entire list of construction materials

used for this project, total donations received

reported to the donors in the end.

 

I only have a rough calculation of expenditures

involved at present.

 

Funds needed: The whole project costs about 3.75

lakhs approx .I have cut down a lot of expenditures.

Desire to start the construction in 2 to 3 days time

.The engineer assured he will finish the work in 1

week time or for the festival.

 

Once the project starts it shouldn't stop at any cost.

The funds should be in total so there will be no

hindrance due to lack of finances. The time is short

and I have tried my best to do the basic groundwork.

We just have 4 days left to start the work.

 

There are 70,000 bahagavthas present for this great

festival to take Darshan of our Beloved Grand, Grand

Spiritual Master Sri Ramanuja acharya .Bhagavatha Seva

is more important than Bhagavan seva. Srila Ramanuja

Acharya will be very happy and pleased if we can

construct the toilets and provide bathing facility for

his devotees.

 

The toilet facility we are constructing will cater

only to 30% of the crowd during festivals but

something is better than nothing. The toilet facility

will help the poor locals too who lack facilities for

their daily bath and attending of nature calls .

 

This is also considered as kshetra seva.

 

If we have extra funds then it can be used for the

future maintenence of the toilets.For this festival a

team of devotees from Chennai will set up water booths

-Thaneer pandhals to serve cold water and cold butter

milk for the pilgrims. It is getting hotter every day

and the Main temple has not even 1 water tank to

quench the thirst of the several pilgrims who visit

the temple. Our team has already created a small fund

for this service.

 

I am reachable on this no from tomorrow : 9380660433

and I will be checking mails every 2 days for a short

time only until the completion of this project and the

end of festival.

 

I assure the work will be of high quality. After

completion I will also see intend to maintain it

properly.

 

Please do forgive me if there have been any offences

made in the course of my correspondences and bless our

team for the excellent completion of this project .

 

Vaishnava dasanu dasa,

Manoram.