JOIN USThe High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad on Wednesday sent notices to the Andhra Pradesh government and the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) for depositing Rs 1,000 crore of "god's money" in IndusInd Bank.
Last month, the TTD deposited Rs 3,000 crore in public sector banks and Rs 1,000 crore in Tirupati branch of the IndusInd Bank.
The bench comprising Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice K Vijayalakshi, while hearing a PIL filed by P Naveen Kumar Reddy, wanted to know why such a huge amount of money donated by devotees was deposited in a private bank. The petitioner also urged the court to direct the TTD to frame certain guidelines in depositing temple money in banks.
However, TTD Executive Officer (EO) Anil Kumar Singhal ruled out any violation of rules in making deposits and clarified that the entire process was carried out in a transparent manner.
Elaborating on the procedure followed by TTD, the EO said at a press conference in Tirumala that Vijaya Bank has quoted a rate of interest of 7.27% in the first instance and again in the sealed quotation.
But Andhra Bank quoted 7% initially and improved their rate to 7.32%. “In the circumstances, the deposit of Rs 3,000 crore was made with the highest rate of interest quoted by Andhra Bank in a transparent way,” he said.
Elaborating further, the EO said, in the backdrop of drastic interest reduction in PSUs, the Investment Committee experts advised TTD to invest in government approved (Vide GO.Ms.No.124) private banks.
The selection was made by the committee on the basis of the health of the bank. The committee also suggested that the investment should not exceed more than 10% of the total investment portfolio in each private sector bank.
In this regard, the IndusInd Bank has quoted highest rate at 7.66% for callable deposits and an amount of Rs 1,000 crore was invested with them.
“The total procedure followed was transparent and there is absolutely no violation of procedures, rules and regulations. Government orders were followed in these re-investments made in a transparent manner," the EO added.