TTD denies diversion of SRIVANI funds

Tirumala: TTD executive officer A V Dharma Reddy on Monday strongly denied any misuse or diversion of SRIVANI (Sri Venkateswara Alaya Nirmana) Trust funds.

He held a media conference on Monday to provide the details of SRIVANI trust activities, including the financial support being provided for construction of new temple, renovation of old temples that are historically and religiously significant.

He also gave details of monthly financial support being provided for conduct of Dhoopa, Deepa Naivedyam in the temples that are constructed with the trust support and also to select temples that are directly requiring monetary support for daily rituals to affirm that there is no iota of truth in a section of media and social media reports alleging diversion of funds to the government.

Condemning the allegations that SRIVANI trust funds are diverted to pay the salaries of TTD employees and also to state government programmes, he said the funds from SRIVANI Trust are totally utilised for constructing temples in backward areas and in renovating the age-old temples across the state.

Explaining the reason behind TTD introducing donation linked darshan, the EO said TTD was providing many privileges like darshan and accommodation only to those who donate Rs 1 lakh and above to various TTD trusts but there are no privileges to those who donate less than Rs 1 lakh leading to devotees frequently requesting TTD to provide at least darshan to the donation ranging from Rs 1,0000- Rs 99,000, resulting in TTD coming with one time darshan facility to SRIVANI trust donations.

Regarding the construction of new temples, he said Rs 32 crore was provided to Hindu social service organisation Samarasatha Seva Foundation (SSF) for construction of 320 temples in which 111 nearing completion and the remaining will be over in six months.

The amount towards the cost of the temple will be remitted in the temple committee account in three instalments, he said, informing that the SSF has spent more on the temples than what TTD has provided.

The AP endowments took up construction of 932 temples with SRIVANI trust funds for which TTD provided Rs 100 crore, he explained.

"Besides, we have received another 667 applications which are under consideration," Reddy said, adding that the construction of temples is mostly confined to AP and Telangana state and will be soon extended to other Southern states including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Puducherry.

The EO also said for Dhoopa-Deepa-Naivedyam activities in these temples, TTD has released Rs. 12.50 crore.

A local committee was also formed to look after the affairs of these temples and every month, the amount will be sent to the committee's account. "We also have a separate Account for SRIVANI Trust and Social Audit as well" to ensure no irregularities," he maintained.

TTD JEO Veerabrahmam, CVSO Narasimha Kishore, CEO SVBC Shanmukh Kumar, chief engineer Nageswara Rao and others were present.