TTD JEO denies allegations of Ramana Deekshithulu

Tirupati: TTD Tirumala Joint Eexecutive Officer (JEO) KS Srinivasa Raju stoutly denied the allegations of TTD former priest AV Ramana Deekshithulu with regard to the repairs in the `Prasadam Potu’ and termed his propaganda as malicious.

Speaking to media at Tirumala on Friday evening, Raju said that the practice of preparing Prasdams at Padi potu for offering to the presiding deity (Moolvaru) is not new but was done in 2001, 2007 and 2008 also due to repairs in the Prasadam Potu located in the first Prakaram (Vimana Prakaram), near the sanctum sanctorum.

Dosa prasadam is prepared in Padi potu daily to offer to the presiding deity in the evening during Thomala indicating that offering the prasdams prepared in the Padi Potu located in the Sampangi Prakaram (Second prakaram) is neither irreverence nor impiety, he said refuting Deekshitulu terming the offering of Padi Potu prasadams to Lord as Apacharam.

Raju said that all these days he refrained from reacting to Deekshitulu allegations but was forced to hold the media conference after Deekshitulu in his recent media conference in Hyderabad indicted him in the repairs in Prasadam Potu and also accused him of driving the priests to speed up the process of rituals like Thomala.

He also wants to tell the facts to the multitude of devotees to avoid any suspicion of violations.  in the shrine. Raju alleged that because of the objection from Deekshitulu the TTD could not complete the repairs in the Prasadam potu (temple kitchen) which was approved with an outlay of about Rs 20 lakhs.  

``TTD consulted one of the Agama Adviser Sundara Vardan who approved the repairs and also got the consent of Pedda Jeeyangar, but was stopped the works after replacing refractor brick walls and platform works due to Deekshithulu opposition’’ he explained. After the partial repairs in potu in December, Punyavachanam was performed on January 8 this year commencing normal work of preparation of prasdams for offering to Lord after a gap of three weeks.

Affirming that there is no interference of secular administration in the happenings and programmes inside the shrine, he said that he was much pained at the baseless allegation against senior officials despite they strictly confined to only secular administration of the temple. `` No official will be allowed to present at the time of Thomala as such where is possibility of forcing priests to cut short ritual or quicken it’’ he said.