It won’t undermine TTD authority: IYR

​Hyderabad: IYR Krishna Rao, who was Executive Officer of the TTD when the controversy over gold-plating of the walls of the Tirumala Temple was raging in 2011, has said that he had written to the Archeological Survey of India then, drawing its attention to the decision of the specified authority which was in office then, to urge the ASI to make a study of the architecture and heritage value of the temple and declare it as a protected monument.  

Rao, who maintained that the specified authority's decision then and the present letter from the ASI to the temple are two independent occurrences, said that even if the ASI declares a temple as a protected monument, no harm will be done since entire administration of the temple and the rituals that are performed would be under the control of the TTD and the state government as the case may be. 

The ASI would concern itself only for the protection of the heritage value of the monuments. Asked why the ASI had written a letter now to the TTD, he said it could be possible that someone was trying to make the ASI seek the cooperation of the TTD to make the temples at the Tirumala under TTD control as protected monuments. 

Usually, the ASI acts when anyone approaches with a petition to protect the heritage value of a monument, he said, and pointed out that Srinivasa Mangapuram temple at the foot of the hills from where kalibata starts to the Tirumala temple, was also under the ASI.