NEW DELHI: The Sathya Sai Empire has over decades accumulated hundreds of acres of immovable property and cash assets in the form of donations that run into crores of rupees. The Sathya Sai Central Trust manages medical and degree colleges, schools, Sadhana Trust of books and publications, the Eswaramma Women's Welfare Trust, seva organizations and super-specialty hospitals at Puttaparthi and Bangalore.
In addition, there are general hospitals , eye hospitals and drinking water schemes in Anantapur, Medak, Mahabubnagar, East and West Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh and Chennai.
The Sai Empire has a presence in 186 nations and operates 1,200 organizations worldwide. Puttaparthi is the seat of the Sathya Sai University complex , the Chaitanya Jyoti Museum, a planetarium, an indoor stadium, an outdoor hill-view stadium, a general hospital, a music college, an airport, apart from the super-specialty hospital and Prasanthi Nilayam.
All these projects are managed by the central trust, exempted from taxes since it is a charitable body. While Sathya Sai Baba is the chairman, retired IAS officer K Chakravarthi is the secretary. Donations pour in from every corner of the world every year and there is no official figure available of this.
Sources said Isaac Tigrett Burton from Tennessee, USA, and founder of Hard Rock Cafe and House of Blues, donated Rs 300 crore for the Sathya Sai Super-specialty Hospital in 1991. Puttaparthi's super-specialty hospital was built at a cost of Rs 300 crore in a record 10 months. It was inaugurated by then PM P V Narasimha Rao on November 22, 1991. The Bangalore hospital cost around Rs 500 crore.
Drinking water schemes in various districts amount to Rs 2,500 crore. The fancy indoor stadium at Puttaparthi was built in 132 days at a cost of Rs 30 crore. Baba unveiled a Rs 300 crore drinking water project to provide safe drinking water to 220 villages in East Godavari and 230 villages in West Godavari in 2005.
Set up in 1968, the Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning was made a deemed university in 1981.
Sai Baba resides in Yajur Mandir and gives darshans at Sai Kulwant Hall, which has a capacity of 4,000. In the summer, Baba resides at Brindavan Ashram in Kadugodi, Whitefield, Bangalore. Occasionally, he visits Sai Shruti Ashram in Kodaikanal. Sources say Prasanthi Nilayam has a Green Room, to which only the Baba has access.
THE SAI EMPIRE
Worth of Sathya Sai Central Trust as per income tax estimates - Rs 4,000 crore in Puttaparthi, the trust runs
The university complex
A specialty hospital
World Religious Museum, Chaitanya Jyoti
A planetarium
A railway station
Hill-view stadium
A music college
An administrative building
An airport
An indoor stadium
A sports complex
1,200 Sathya Sai Baba centres in over 180 countries
Schools, cultural and health centres
WHO HEADS THE TRUST?
Sathya Sai Baba is the chairman
OTHERS ON THE BOARD
Former IAS officer K Chakravarthi is the Trust secretary
Indulal Shah (businessman from Mumbai)
P N Bhagwati (former Chief Justice of India)
Venu Srinivasan (CMD of TVS Motor Company)
S V Giri (Former VC of Satya Sai University)
J Ratnakar, son of Saibaba's brother Janakiram, is a trust member
Estimated total worth of the Sathya Sai Baba Empire - Between Rs 40,000 cr and Rs 1.5 lakh cr
DREAM DONATION
Among one of Sathya Sai Baba's mega donors was Isaac Tigrett, who started Hard Rock Cafe. Sai Baba is said to have come in his dreams and saved him from a fatal disease. Tigrett apparently sold his cafe chain for $108 million and in 1991 gave the money to the Guru. This is how the famous Puttaparthi hospital was funded
VITAL STATISTICS
Rs 250 cr is the cost of Anantapur piped-water project. Benefits 750 villages in the district
30 million is the estimated number of Sai Baba devotees
Courtesy: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com
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