Parties on all sides of the political spectrum took exception to the decision of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) to offer 1% of its annual budget to the Municipal Corporation of Tirupati (MCT) for maintenance of civic amenities.
Though the proposal has been floating for quite some time, it was granted the official nod at the TTD trust board meeting held on Monday, making enraging the political parties.
Retired bureaucrat I.Y.R. Krishna Rao, who had served as both the Executive Officer of TTD, but also as the Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh, asked, in a post on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) whether the civic body would be able to share 1% of its revenue to the TTD, since Tirupati owed its economic rise to the presence of Tirumala shrine.
Picking up the thread, BJP state official spokesperson G. Bhanuprakash Reddy criticised the TTD board for becoming a puppet in the hands of the government. Addressing the media on Tuesday, he wondered how the government, which could not secure a single rupee from churches or the Waqf Board, lay its hands on the TTD’s exchequer. “The TTD does not get a single rupee from the State and yet eyes the funds from Srivari Hundi, which are generated in the form of offerings from the common devotees”.
With the TTD’s annual budget pegged at a whopping ₹4600 crore, the 1% share would be close to an annual outgo of around ₹50 crore, which he said would be a permanent burden on the TTD. “Is there any other temple in the country that shares its revenues with the local municipal corporation?” he remarked.
Senior Congress leader and former municipal councillor P. Naveen Kumar Reddy slammed the MCT for seeking funds to clear the garbage generated by the devotees in the city limits. “If there are no devotees, Tirupati will be just a village and not a smart city, which it is today. It is similar to punishing the TTD for the higher pilgrim footfall, which is totally unacceptable,” he told the media.
