TTD employees remain divided over the government’s directive restricting the Trust Board from disposing of its ‘non-remunerative properties’.
They are engaged in an interesting debate with regard to the merits and demerits of the government’s decision. While a majority of them expressed their displeasure at the government’s order, a few hailed it.
“It has come as a breather to the TTD at a time when it is being battered from all sides by leaders of various political parties. Disposing of landed properties will hurt the sentiments of donors,” felt this section of the staff, mostly from the lower and middle rungs.
However, the majority group, which consists of even several senior officials, who wished not to be quoted, argued that it was not possible to maintain all the gifts received by the TTD in their original form.
Old practice
“A gift is a gift irrespective of whether it is movable or immovable and every endowment received by TTD is normally derived only from the temple hundi. If the political leaders really mean that the gifts have to be safeguarded in their original form then TTD should neither deposit gold and silver ornaments derived from temple hundi in banks after converting them into bars/bricks nor go for periodical auctioning of high-priced offerings like watches and expensive smart phones, a practice which it has been observing for several decades,” they said.
Encroachment threat
On an average about 300 pieces of each kind are offered every month.
“When the TTD can auction movable properties and deposit the sale proceeds in its bank accounts, what is wrong in disposing of the non-viable properties that are prone for encroachments?” they wondered. They cited how the then TDP government in the late 1990s barred TTD from claiming ownership over several hundred acres of its prime land in Tirupati for the reason that it was in the possession and enjoyment of individuals for generations.
The liquidation of non-remunerative properties scattered in several States in bits and pieces, mostly in remote areas, would strengthen the financial viability of the TTD.
The move will also safeguard the sentiments of donors as the interest derived from the sale proceeds would be constantly utilised by the trust board for the benefit of the devout in some form or another, some officials reasoned.
