TIRUMALA: The newly constituted Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Trust Board, which met for the first time at Annamayya Bhavan here on Monday, took several key decisions, including surrender of non-Hindu employees working in Tirumala to the State government.
Cancellation of lease of land given to Visakha Sarada Peetham, and provision of Darshan to local people on first Tuesday of every month.
Disclosing the details of the meeting to mediapersons, TTD Trust Board Chairman BR Naidu said the board took a decision to hold consultations with the employees of other religions working with the TTD.
They will be given the option of taking voluntary retirement or joining any other government department, he said.
Asserting that Visakha Sarada Peetham, which took land on lease from the TTD, committed several violations, he said the land lease will be cancelled and the building constructed on the land will be demolished.
The board also discussed at length on reducing the waiting time for Sarva Darshan. After observing that it is taking up to 30 hours for having Sarva Darshan in some days, the board decided to make use of AI and hire a consultancy to reduce it to not more than two hours.
TTD FDs in pvt banks to be moved to national banks
The debris piled up in the dumping yard in Tirumala will be cleared within two months, and a draft plan for disposal of the debris and collected waste within a day duration, and other possible steps will also be taken, he explained.
He recalled that Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu with a vision to develop the most happening place ‘Devlok’ near SV Zoo Park in Tirupati, allotted 20 acres of land to the Tourism Department before 2019. Now, plans are on to construct a five star hotel Mumtaz at the place. As the said place is adjacent to the Tirumala Hills, such activities will hurt the sentiments of Hindus. Hence, the government will be urged to give that land to the TTD, he said.
Srivani Trust accounts will be cancelled and remain in one account that is the regular TTD account. However, the Sri Vani scheme will remain the same. The trust board took a bold decision to withdraw all the TTD fixed deposits from private banks and keep them in the nationalised banks.
It was also decided to add another food item to Annadanam Canteen buffet, and further improve the quality of food.
The Brahmotsava Bahumanam to TTD employees was increased by 10%. An amount of Rs 15,400 will be given to regular employees, and Rs 7,530 to contract employees as Brahmotsava Bahumanam. Srinivasa Sethu in Tirupati will be rechristened ‘Garuda Varadhi’, he revealed.
The system of issuing around 4,000 Darshan tickets to the Tourism Department will be wound up as the misuse of tickets was established in the vigilance enquiry. In fact, Tirumala is a pilgrim centre and not a tourism centre, the TTD Chairman averred.
TTD Executive Officer J Syamala Rao, board members and other officials were present.