The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) national president N. Chandrababu Naidu has urged the State government to cancel the ‘jumbo Board’ for the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD). The government constituted the Board with 81 members in total ‘disregard’ for the sentiments of the devotees and pilgrims, he said.
Mr. Naidu wrote a letter to the Chief Minister, Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy in this regard on Friday. In the letter, the former Chief Minister advised Jagan not to misuse the TTD for a political and personal advantage. Appointing corruption-tainted persons on the governing body was condemnable. Conversion of the pious Seven Hills into a hub of commercial interests was regrettable. The Board was turned into a rehabilitation centre for the politically unemployed persons, he alleged.
Mr. Naidu said that appointment of persons accused in CBI cases as members of the TTD Board was highly objectionable. Importance should be given to those known for their devotional fervour and a spirit of ‘Swamivari Seva’. The TDP would strongly condemn the filling of the TTD Board with businessmen with questionable credentials, corrupt persons, criminals and tainted individuals. No other Chief Minister in the past had even thought of appointing such a jumbo-sized Board, he said, adding, “a new Board should be constituted in accordance with the traditions and sentiments of the devotees.”