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Current TTD board’s last meet on April 25
TTD trust board under the chairmanship of Chadalawada Krishna Murthy will be meeting for the last time on April 25 at Tirumala. No major decisions can be expected in the farewell meeting of the board, which may be confined to felicitations only. The state government constituted the 15-member trust board, including the chairman, on April 27, 2015.
Tenure of the 15-member board will come to an end on April 30
Tirupati: TTD trust board under the chairmanship of Chadalawada Krishna Murthy will be meeting for the last time on April 25 at Tirumala. No major decisions can be expected in the farewell meeting of the board, which may be confined to felicitations only. The state government constituted the 15-member trust board, including the chairman, on April 27, 2015.
Initially, the term of the board was one year but it was extended for another year in April 2016. The tenure will come to an end this month.
Two members were removed from the initial list. Sekhar Reddy was sacked as he was arrested following an Income Tax raid and seizure of a large amount of currency and gold. Another member, G Sayanna, an MLA from Telangana who defected to TRS from the TDP, was removed on the grounds of not attending two consecutive meetings of the board.
He was replaced by Arikela Narsa Reddy and very recently, Sudha Murthy, wife of Infosys chairman NR Narayana Murthy, replaced Sekhar Reddy.
During its tenure the board deferred the decision on increasing the rates of Arjitha Seva tickets. The sub-committee set up by the Trust Board in 2015 recommended the increase in the prices of various Arjitha Seva tickets and VIP break darshan tickets to get more revenue for the TTD to take up various welfare measures. The board has not taken a decision as it feared criticism at the fag end of its tenure.
On the whole, the tenure of the board was smooth as it largely confined itself only to administrative matters. One of the major decisions of the board was takeover of Vontimitta temple. Subsequently, the development works there are now in full swing. The TTD has entered into power production by inaugurating the solar power project near Tamballapalle.
The new complex of BIRRD hospital, built at a cost of Rs 40 crores, was also inaugurated during this period. However, the efforts to allocate funds to some organisations and temples received criticism and even the High Court had objected to them.
As there is no provision to extend the term of the board further, the government has to constitute the new board only.
If not, it may go ahead with the appointment of a specified authority, which will take care of all matters with full powers till the new board is constituted. It is expected in the official and political circles that whenever a new board is appointed, two members from the outgoing board, film director K Raghavendra Rao and Sudha Murthy may be retained.
By: V Pradeep Kumar
