The growing differences among the archakas working at the famous hill temple of Lord Venkateswara came to the fore again on Monday with senior archaka Khadripati Narasimhacharyulu taking strong objection to the alleged remarks made by chief priest A.V. Ramana Dikshitulu as carried in a section of the press.
Addressing the media at the Archaka Nilayam, Mr. Narasimhacharyulu alleged that they were always subjected to humiliation at the hands of Mr. Ramana Dikshitulu though they shared equal cadre as ‘Sambhavana’ archakas.
“It is we who carry out all the religious chores inside the temple every day. Dikshitulu frequently refers to us as contract archakas and we feel degraded each time such a reference is made. “We do not have any complaints working under the other three erstwhile mirasidar families who are entrusted with the task of allocation of duties to the archakas. But we find it hard working during the turn of Ramana Dikshitulu.”
Transfer of sons
Clearing the air, Mr. Narasimhacharyulu ruled out intervention of other archakas in the recent transfer of the sons of the chief priest to Sri Govindaraja Swamy temple at Tirupati.
Controversial entry
However, he agreed to have submitted a detailed report with regard to the controversial entry of Mr. Dikshitulu along with his son and grandson through the restricted Mahadwaram for which the management had sought an explanation from the chief priest.
