The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) will shortly terminate the services of all non-Hindu employees and hand them over to the Andhra Pradesh government, the temple trust board stated on Monday.
The decision was made at a meeting of the newly formed TTD trust board, which was chaired by BR Naidu and held at Annamayya Bhavan in Tirumala. This is the TTD’s first meeting after the recent issue over adulteration of ghee used in the production of “laddu prasadam.”
Briefing the reporters after the board meeting, Naidu said that the TTD will assess the total number of non-Hindus working in the temple administration in various capacities and surrender them to the government. As per a 2018 report, there are 44 employees of other religious faiths working in the TTD.
“We shall write to the state government for taking an appropriate decision about the non-Hindus working in Tirumala. The TTD is a Hindu religious institution and the board felt that it should not employ non-Hindus to work in the temple. We shall write to the government to either absorb them in various other departments or offer them a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS),” Naidu said.
In the wake of the recent controversy over the adulteration of ghee, the TTD resolved to constitute a committee to monitor the quality of ghee used in the preparation of Tirumala laddus and other prasadams from time to time. “We have also decided to introduce one more tasty item in the everyday menu at the Anna Prasadam complex, where free food is provided to the devotees after darshan of Lord Venkateshwara,” the TTD chairman said.
The board further decided to ban leaders of various political parties from making political statements on Tirumala hills. “Stringent action will be taken as per the law against such people as well on those who propagate them,” he said.
Another important decision taken by the trust board is to transfer all the cash deposits of the TTD from private banks into the nationalised banks. “Keeping in view the safety of TTD deposits, a formal decision will be taken at the next trust board meeting to deposit them in the nationalised banks by withdrawing the already deposited ones from private banks,” Naidu said.
“The TTD trust board decided to make use of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence to reduce the time being taken by pilgrims for the darshan of Lord Venkateshwara from the present 20-30 hours to two-three hours. We shall take the advice of experts in this regard,” he said.
The board decided to abolish the SRIVANI Trust, created during the previous government to mobilise funds for restoration of dilapidated temples across the state by collecting ₹10,000 from each pilgrim to provide them special “break darshan” of the deity
“We have decided to merge this SRIVANI Trust account into the TTD account and continue the scheme in a different format,” Naidu said.
Other decisions taken by the TTD trust board are: dispensing with the quota of darshan tickets being given to tourism development corporations of various states, clearing of debris piling up at the Tirumala dumping yard within three-four months; withdrawal of allotment of 20 acres of land to the state tourism department at Alipiri, cancellation of the allotment of land to Visakha Sarada Peetham that has violated the rules of the TTD and enhancement in the remuneration paid to the TTD employees participating in Brahmotsavams by 10%, ranging from ₹7,535 to ₹15,400.
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Source: HT
