Tirupati. Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam Board or TTD, which manages the temple of Lord Venkateswara in Tirumala, has asked its non-Hindu employees to take VRS or get transferred to other departments. A proposal in this regard is reported to have been passed in the TTD Board meeting held on Monday. According to the news of English newspaper The Times of India, TTD Board Chairman BR Naidu said that this decision has been taken for non-Hindu employees. Apart from 300 out of 7000 employees working under the TTD Board, many of the thousands of employees working here on contract may have to be affected under the new decision.
It is said in the TTD Act that only Hindu employees can work here. In the year 1989, the then Andhra Pradesh government had issued an order saying that only Hindus should be appointed in TTD. Even after this the TTD Board appointed non-Hindu employees. After the formation of Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP-BJP government in Andhra Pradesh, the issue of non-Hindu employees in TTD gained momentum. It is being told that the employees’ unions have also agreed on the issue of removal of non-Hindu staff. For some time now, due to various reasons, the TTD Board and the management of Lord Venkateshwara temple in Tirumala has been under question.
Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu had recently created a sensation by saying that animal fat was found in the ghee used in the laddu prasadam offered to Lord Venkateswara in the Tirupati temple during the tenure of Jaganmohan Reddy’s government. After this allegation, investigation into the matter was also started. The Supreme Court has also formed a SIT to investigate this matter. At the same time, Jaganmohan Reddy says that due to a political conspiracy to defame him, the allegation of using fatty ghee in Laddu Prasadam has been made.
