The academic community and activists from Rayalaseema perceive that there is an attempt being made to shift the Telugu and Sanskrit Akademi, originally sanctioned to be headquartered at Tirupati, to Vijayawada or its vicinity, citing administrative convenience, said Rayalaseema Intellectual Forum president M. Purushotham Reddy, on Tuesday.
Mr. Reddy found fault with the Akademi authorities for renting premises in Vijayawada to house the institute’s chairperson’s office and godown, which he feared could leave the Tirupati headquarters merely on paper.
“Some officials point out that the Akademi can be shifted to Vijayawada in view of the presence of a large number of printing presses there, which is a weird argument,” he added.
Laying emphasis on the creation of a Telugu Akademi under the Department of Higher Education in Andhra Pradesh in the wake of State bifurcation in 2014, the State government issued an order dated June 16, 2020, that clearly mentioned that the Akademi be headquartered at Tirupati.
Tirupati has an academic ecosystem with a scholarly and literary community that includes qualified professors, employed in half a dozen universities, who can also contribute to the Akademi’s activities.
The presence of a central university for Sanskrit here comes as an added advantage, as the Akademi is also required to strive for the development of Sanskrit.
Based on a representation submitted by the Telugu Akademi President N. Lakshmi Parvathi, the Chief Minister’s Office had written to the Revenue Department in October 2022 to identify two acres of land in Tirupati to establish the Akademi’s central office.
“There are attempts, of late, to shift the Akademi out of Tirupati and permanently to Vijayawada. This will certainly create a regional imbalance”M. Purushotham ReddyPresident, Rayalaseema Intellectual Forum
“In spite of all these developments, there are attempts, of late, to shift the Akademi out of Tirupati and permanently to Vijayawada. This will certainly create a regional imbalance”, cautioned Mr. Reddy.
He attributed the attempts to the lack of focus on the Akademi’s activities since the body is currently headed by an official in charge of another department.
The forum recently submitted a representation to Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy, advisor to the Government, on the overt attempts to render injustice to Rayalaseema and sought his intervention in retaining the lone State-level educational institution sanctioned to Tirupati.
