Don’t touch pilgrim money, says Chinta Mohan

Tirupati: Stoutly opposing the utilising of TTD funds for Corporation works like sanitation, Congress senior leader Chinta Mohan noted that it was not wise to touch the pilgrim money, which should be left with the TTD only.

Speaking to the reporters here on Saturday, the former Union Minister said Congress party that had ruled Andhra Pradesh for 10 years from 2004 to 2014, had never touched TTD money, which is nothing but contributed by poor pilgrims.

Without using TTD funds, Congress party had developed the city and brough nearly Rs 1 crore from the Centre for infrastructure development, including seven national highways, Mannavaram project, SVIMS and Ruia hospital development, from 2004 to 2014, he explained. Reiterating not to use TTD funds for other purposes, Chinta Mohan challenged the YSRCP government that he is ready to take the responsibility of getting funds from the Centre to improve facilities in Tirupati if it (the State government) is incapable to bring funds from the Centre.

The former Union Minister alleged that the Enforcement Director (ED) was adopting double standards regarding GST on sand. ‘In AP, lakhs of crore tones sand is mined without collecting GST by the government and the ED is remaining silent on the revenue loss in the State. But the same ED issued notices to the district Collector in Tamil Nadu for failing to collect GST on sand sale in many districts in that State,’ he pointed out. He wanted Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman to explain why the ED was acting in a different manner.

Reacting to the recent incident where the AP police allegedly barged and set up fencing on Nagarjuna Sagar dam, Chinta Mohan said that it was a gimmick played by the YSRCP government before elections in Telangana. This was at the biggest of the BJP to spoil the chances of Congress party to help the TRS, he alleged. But Telangana people were clever and decided to vote against the TRS, he said, adding that Congress victory in Telangana will impact the AP where the party will pick up strength.

Party leaders Puthalapattu Prabhakar, Yarlapalli Gopi, Tejovati and others participated.