TTD Chairman, 10 Board Members Administered Oath

TIRUMALA: Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) chairman Chadalavada Krishnamurthy along with 10 members of the new Trust Board took oath in the traditional way here on Saturday. The remaining members will take oath in a couple of days.

In the ‘Meena Lagna’ muhurtham at 11.09 am at Bangaruvakili, TTD executive officer D Sambasiva Rao administered the oath to Kolla Lalitha Kumari, Pilli Anantha Lakshmi, Dola Sreebala Veeranjaneya Swamy, Putta Sudhakar Yadav, G Sayanna, AV Ramana, J Sekhar, Suchithra Ella, Sampath Ravi Narayanan and Pasupuleti Hariprasad.

Later, the executive officer also took oath as a member secretary of the board. All the members along with their families had general darshan instead of ‘Harathi’ and ‘Satari’ darshan due to heavy pilgrim rush.

Following the decision of the new chairman to vacate the temple immediately after darshan, the board members went out of the temple to avoid inconvenience to pilgrims.All the members were honoured with ‘Veda Asheervadam’ at Ranganayakula Mandapam and were offered calendars, photo frames and books. The two joint executive officers - Srinivasa Raju and Pola Bhaskar - assisted the EO in organising the oath-taking ceremony.

Chadalavada asserted that he was a ‘sevak’ of Lord Venkateswara and would render services to the multitude of visiting pilgrims as a volunteer. Addressing newsmen outside the temple after having the darshan of Lord Venkateswara, the chairman reiterated that it was a God-given opportunity to him and promised to utilise every bit of it to serve the pilgrims to the best of his ability with the co-operation of board members, TTD management and staff.

Chadalavada said he would strive to realise the dream of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu of developing Tirumala as a spiritual destination.

Later, the chairman, along with board members A V Ramana, Sayanna and Suchitra Ella, visited Annaprasadam complex and interacted with pilgrims.

 The maiden meet of the new TTD Trust Board gave approval for setting up a replica of Lord Venkateswara temple on the Pushkarini Ghat during the Godavari Pushkarams scheduled to begin on July 14. The meeting  also decided to purchase 70 lakh SS double-edged blades worth `1.5 crore for tonsuring.

Leopard Sighting triggers panic

Panic gripped the pilgrims trekking to Tirumala through the Sri Vari Mettu footpath on Saturday following reports of the sighting of a leopard near the footpath, according to sources. Sources told Express that some pilgrims who reportedly saw the leopard crossing the footpath near the 250th step around 3 pm alerted those following them. 

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