JOIN USA day after the Temple Protection Movement urged it to claim its share of the revenues from Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam, the Telangana government went ahead and did just that on Wednesday.
The government declared in the Assembly that it would claim its share of Rs 241 crore from Tirumala’s Common Good Fund pending since 2003.
Mudhole MLA G Vittal Reddy raised the Tirumala revenue share issue during the Question Hour, to which Legislature Affairs Minister Harish Rao responded by quoting the latest CAG report which said the TTD owed Rs 576 crore to the Common Good Fund between 2003-13 and Telangana’s share is roughly Rs 241 crore.
“We demand the Andhra Pradesh government to pay the same,” Rao said in the Assembly. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has also directed the Endowment Department to follow up the issue. The state government is also keen on developing the Narasimhaswamy temple at Yadagirigutta, 40 kilometres away from Hyderabad, on the lines of Tirumala.
During a recent visit, KCR announced an Rs 150 crore development project to build guest houses, Kalyana Mantapams and other tourist amenities to make the town on par with Tirupati.
The TTD has been placed under schedule 8 of the AP Reorganisation Act, which means the temple’s funds need not be shared with Telangana from the day of appointment (June 02, 2014).
Officials say there are 160 funds in the eighth schedule worth Rs 25,000 crore in which Telangana can get a share, but the state has no share in the 41 funds under the seventh schedule worth Rs 31,000 crore.
The Shri Vaishnavite shrine, considered to be the richest in the country, boasts of an annual budget of Rs 2,400 crore.
It also has Rs 8,500 crore in fixed deposits, about 12 tonnes of gold ornaments, besides gold collection of 3 tonnes in the hundis. Until now, TTD has doled out subsidies to nearly 42 temples in Telangana and 61 in Andhra Pradesh.