Chinta Mohan, on January 4 (Thursday), demanded the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) and the State government immediately drop the plans to construct mega complexes in the place of the second and third choultries in Tirupati, at a cost of ₹450 crore, and instead, use the existing choultries to provide free accommodation to the pilgrims.
He added that the choultries are in good condition and stressed that the pilgrims have been using the choultries for several years now. He also alleged corruption to the tune of ₹50 crores in the tendering process.
“The pilgrims, including those from poor economic backgrounds, offer their hard-earned money as donations to the Tirumala temple. Hence, the TTD should immediately withdraw its plans of the mega construction planned to be taken up at a whopping ₹450 crore,” he said, adding that the Congress party would launch an agitation on the issue.
The senior Congress leader interacted with the youth and women at the SC Colony of Vedurukuppam mandal headquarters on Thursday and said that despite several legislations and ordinances. He said Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had rendered the SC/ST Finance Corporations in the State defunct, causing misery to lakhs of families, who were also denied loans by the banks.
“In the absence of pre and post-metric scholarships, the dropout rate among the students of Dalit communities is on the rise each academic year,” he alleged.
He said that the NDA government at the Center had made several schemes, such as the Integrated Rural Development Programme and Jawahar Rojgar Yojana, lifeless, denying Dalits their due share in economic development. There was no progress in housing schemes for the Dalits during the Narendra Modi government, he said.
