The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams Trust Board, which met here on Saturday, decided to re-construct or renovate six temples in every district, construct an amenities complex at Tiruchanur with a modified plan, take up the third phase of Mana Gudi programme in the state and also to undertake silver-plating of the Tirumanjanam table in the sanctum sanctorum of Sri Govindaraja Swamy temple in Tirupati.
Briefing mediapersons after chairing the trust board meeting at Annamayya Bhavan on Saturday, chairman K Bapiraju said the board decided to re-build six temples in each district.
“Out of the six, two temples will be re-constructed in such a way that it will retain the existing sculpture and architecture. The local temple managements have to bear 10 to 25 per cent of the cost and the TTD will contribute the remaining. The budget, however, should not exceed Rs 25 lakh,’’ he said.
TIRUCHANUR COMPLEX: The board also modified the plan to construct a big amenities complex at Tiruchanur, near Tirupati, at a cost of Rs 68 crore. The revised plan incorporates a mini Kalyanakatta and a Kalyanamandapam in the complex which will come up on a 5.5-acre land. “The complex will have 200 AC and 200 non-AC rooms including two dormitories on two floors,’’ Bapiraju said.
The TTD decided to dismantle the first new choultry situated at the rear of the Tirupati railway station and the engineering department was asked to draft a new plan and design for construction of a multi-purpose complex. Some of the persons displaced from Tirumala, who are housed in the choultry, will be shifted to new houses whose construction is nearing completion.
Among the other decisions taken by the board include silver-plating of the Tirumanjanam table in the sanctum sanctorum of Govindaraja Swamy temple in Tirupati with 119 kg of silver. The Chinnasesha Vahanam, Kalpavriksha Vahanam, Tiruchi and Makara Toranam at the temple will be gold-plated at a cost of Rs 3.20 crore for which about 10 kg of gold will be required.
MANA GUDI: The board resolved to conduct the third phase of Mana Gudi, a mass temple festival at all the temples acroos the state, in connection with Sravana Pournami on August 21. There will be Alaya Sobha (temple decoration including cleaning, whitewashing and others) on August 8, dharmic discourses by eminent scholars on August 11, Kumkumarchana at 108 temples on August 12, Gopuja on August 14, mass Varalakshmi Vratam on August 16, mass Satyanarayana Vratam in Girijan and Dalit colonies on August 17 and Mana Gudi on August 21.
The chairman and executive officer MG Gopal released posters brought out on Mana Gudi. As per the directions of the government, the TTD decided to hand over the Anjaneya Swamy temple at Gandi in Kadapa district back to the endowments department. The samples of the food stuff and other materials that were burnt in a fire mishap at Matrusri Tarigonda Vengamamba Annaprasada Bhavanam on April 16 have been sent to the state food laboratory for analysis. The chairman asked the officials concerned to claim for the damages from the United India Insurance Company.
The board constituted a three-member committee with joint executive officer (Tirupati) P Venkatrami Reddy as convener and two board members C.Ravindra and Sreenatha Reddy as members to study what sort of developmental activities can be taken up at the other sub-temples of TTD and asked the committee to submit a report by the next meeting of the board.
STAFF’S DEMANDS: It also resolved to consider the long-pending demands, including house-sites of TTD employees. It will soon send a proposal to the government seeking an alternative site instead of the Perur tank which has been allotted to the TTD by the government.
Gow Neerajanam Proposal put in Cold Storage
Tirumala: The proposal to take cows as donation under the Gow Neerajanam scheme had been put in cold storage by the TTD Trust Board which met here on Saturday. The board members did not throw their weight behind the scheme at the meeting. According to the scheme, any individual can donate cow or cows to the dairy farm run by the TTD. A person can donate any number of cows and the number of cattle donated by the person would be taken into consideration for the scheme. As per the value of the cow, the TTD will fix the sevas, accommodation and prasadams that the donor would be eligible and extend the same to the donor. The TTD felt that there are much more important developmental activities to be taken up by it rather than developing the dairy farm.