TTD suspends assistant technician; slaps show-cause notice on AE

Tirumala: The TTD suspended P Ravi Kumar working as Grade-1 assistant technician and also slapped show-cause notice on AVV Krishna Prasad working as assistant engineer in Radio and Broadcasting wing, holding them responsible for the screening of film songs on LED screens put up for telecasting only devotional programmes for the sake of pilgrims at Tirumala on last Friday. The suspension order was issued to the technician on Sunday and a show-cause notice to the assistant engineer on the same day, according to a release issued by TTD here on Monday.

The screening of film songs which went on for an hour left the devotees dumbstruck while the incident sent shockwaves countrywide after some pilgrims posted the screening of the film songs on TTD LEDs at Tirumala, on social media making it viral on April 22, drawing all round criticism against the TTD management. The TTD first tried to downplay the shocking incident terming it as a technical glitch but the nationwide furor and sharp reactions from the leaders of political parties forced the TTD conduct an inquiry leading to the suspension of an employee and serving show-cause notice to an officer, based on a report submitted by the TTD vigilance department.

TTD EO Dr KS Jawahar Reddy taking the incident seriously directed the CVSO Narasimha Kishore to investigate and submit a report immediately.

Following the EO's order, the vigilance officials thoroughly verified the footage at the control room at Asthana Mandapam and also at the Command Control Room and CC cameras at PAC-4 (Pilgrim Amenities Complex). and also enquired with other concerned TTD employees.

In the investigation, the vigilance officials found that assistant technician Ravi Kumar and his friend Gopikrishna entered the TV section control room of Radio and Broadcasting wing on that day (Friday).

It was identified that when all the staff members left, Gopikrishna had remained in the control room till 5.28 pm on Friday during the period in which the incident occurred, the release added.

Based on the inquiry report, suspension orders were slapped on Ravi Kumar and a show-cause notice was issued to assistant engineer AVV Krishna Prasad.