LAHORE, April 1: Devotees offer over Rs250,000 in cash daily at the shrine of Hazrat Data Ganj Bakhsh.

The offerings are dropped in 39 boxes placed at different points at the shrine of the patron saint of Lahore. The Data Darbar administrator, National Bank of Pakistan and the divisional Khatib of the Auqaf Department have put their locks on every box.

The boxes are opened on every Wednesday and Saturday morning by the representatives of the three people holding the keys of the locks in the presence of the members of the Religious Purposes Committee and the cash is deposited in the bank after counting.

The annual income from the offerings at the shrine has reached Rs113.828 million and is on the rise with the increase in number of devotees visiting it with passage of time.

The number of the devotees visiting the shrine can be estimated from the fact that six separate approaches have been provided for reaching it.

The contract for custody of shoes outside the entry points has been awarded for Rs155 million this year. The contractor is authorized to charge only Re1 for keeping a pair of shoes in custody but is fined Rs500 to Rs1,000 for overcharging almost daily.

The 60-member administration is spending Rs278,000 on the average on the sanitation of the Data Darbar Complex covering 425,000 square feet area. The contractor has deployed 115 workers for the sanitation of the shrine and the complex. The sanitation workers work in three shifts for ensuring the sanitation of the complex round-the-clock.

The Data Darbar Mosque has a capacity for the offering of prayers by 2,000 people with the facility of hot and cold water for performing ablution.

A vast samaa hall has been built in the basement for the qawwali sessions during the annual urs of the saint. An auditorium has also been built in the basement for holding religious conferences.

The Data Darbar Complex also houses an industrial school, a religious school and a library. As many as 17 young girls are being trained in knitting and sewing at the school. More than 30 students are also enrolled in the free Dars-i-Nizami and the Hifz-i-Quran classes.

Thousands of people get free meals from the Data Darbar Langar daily. Scores of the cooks earn their livelihood by preparing pulse, rice and roti offered by the devotees at the shrine for distribution through the langar. The distribution of langar starts by 10 am and continues till late in the evening.

The Data Darbar administration cooks only one daig of gram pulse daily whereas the devotees offer hundreds. A daig of rice is available for Rs350 to Rs450 and 100 rotis with daal for Rs200 for offering at the shrine.