Hyderabad, August 24: The Kiran Kumar Reddy Government appears to be in no mood to appoint a new chairman and members of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) board despite pressure from several aspirants within the ruling party.
The term of the present TTD’s specified authority will end on Wednesday and a GO is likely to be issued to further extend the term of the same body. However, the TTD rules do not allow the continuance of any authority beyond one year.
Former Chief Minister K Rosaiah appointed IAS officers – J Satyanarayana as the specified authority and IYR Krishna Rao and Nagireddy as its members, after the term of TTD board chairman Adikeshavulu Naidu ended last year.
Sources say that the Chief Minister is unable to decide on the candidature of new TTD members. While there are already several aspirants in the Congress party, leaders of Praja Rajyam Party are seeking appointment to the plum posts after their merger. There is huge race between the leaders to become the chairman or members of the TTD board. Therefore, under the present political circumstance, the Chief Minister wants to delay the appoint of new board.
Meanwhile, apprehensions have been raised that the TTD administration will take a back seat if the same specified authority (SA) is allowed to continue. There were allegations that the SA had ignored the ‘agama sastras’ and meticulous follow of worship timings of the Lord of Seven Hills, which created a rift between the Thengalai sect belonging to south and Vadagalai sect from northern states.
——-Agencies