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Proposal to auction Tirumala temple property sparks row
Hyderabad
Hyderabad
A recent proposal of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, which manages India’s richest temple of Tirumala in the Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, to auction as many as 50 immovable properties of the temple located in different states has triggered protests from opposition parties and Hindu groups.
On Monday, the TTD clarified that no final decision had been taken yet in this regard. “It was just a proposal which would be discussed at the next trust board meeting. after taking into consideration the suggestions from all quarters,” TTD trust board chairman YV Subba Reddy told reporters in Tirupati.
He said the decision to auction 50 “unviable” properties was taken by the erstwhile trust board during the Telugu Desam Party regime in January 2016, based on a recommendation made by a sub-committee appointed for the purpose.
“At the TTD trust board meeting held in February this year, it was decided to examine the earlier resolution and suggest a plan of auction for the auctioning of the properties,” he clarified.
Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has proposed to auction 50 immovable petty properties located at different places in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Rishikesh in Uttarakhand.
On April 30, the TTD listed out as many as 23 properties situated in various parts of Tamil Nadu including Vellore, Kacheepuram and Thiruvalluvar districts, for auctioning, with the total upset price (base price) of these properties being Rs 2 crore.
The properties proposed for auction include houses, house sites, vacant lands and agriculture land. The TTD chairman said properties donated by devotees to the hill shrine several decades ago were non-maintainable and non- revenue generating for the TTD. There are another 26 properties in Andhra Pradesh and one piece of land in Rishikesh.
The decision triggered criticism from political parties as well as religious groups and individuals.
Bharatiya Janata Party Andhra Pradesh uniut president Kanna Lakshminarayana demanded the temple withdraw the proposal as it would hurt the sentiments of Hindus.
Jana Sena party president Pawan Kalyan lashed out at the temple trust board for the decision that hurts the sentiments of devotees.
Temples protection movement convenor CS Rangarajan appealed to the government to form a Dharmika Parishad to govern the assets of temples. He expressed the fears that the TTD’s decision would set a precedent for all the temples for selling away the properties donated by devotees.
Viswa Hindu Parishad threatened the YS Jagan government with launching Kar Seva, if the decision to sell God’s properties is not withdrawn.
The TTD chairman, however, said as per the rules, the TTD Board was competent to sale, exchange and mortgage the immovable properties, if found beneficial to TTD.
He said that the practice of selling immovable, non-maintainable and not useful properties had been in vogue since 1974. Between 1974-2014, about 129 such immovable properties which were not useful to TTD activities were disposed of in public auction.
