Tirumala, August 27: With each passing day, more worms are coming of the TTD can. If it was the missing jewels the other day, today it is the subversion of rules by none other than the TTD itself. A cursory glance at the SV Nitya Annadana Trust’s financial statement for the year 2008-09 shows that not only has the TTD diverted the trust’s resources but has also pushed it into a financial crisis and forced it to draw upon its Rs 168-crore corpus fund –– a strict no-no.
To top it all, the Annadana Trust now owes Rs 17.47 crore to the TTD’s marketing department. In 2008-09, it spent Rs 33 crore on its regular expenditure but it earned only Rs 27.20 crore as interest from its fixed deposits in various banks. This has forced the Annadana Trust to withdraw Rs 2 crore from its corpus of Rs 168 crore to meet the excess expenditure. The bill went up becuase the Annadana Trust had to incur additional expenditure on purchase of commodities last year, according to the statement of accounts of the Annadana Trust submitted to the Board of Trustees of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams.
The Annadana Trust spent Rs 17.47 crore on purchase of commodities like rice, dal, curd, milk, ghee for supply of free meals to the pilgrims. The Trust through its Annadanam canteen on Tirumala feeds about 35,000 pilgrims every day.
As restaurants on Tirumala charge exorbitant rates, the TTD has decided to expand its Annadana canteen, which now caters to more number of pilgrims than ever before. It has also extended its services to the SV Guest House and other amenity centres including PAC – II.
The Annadana Trust has also been asked to run a mess for students in all the TTD educational institutions following a decision by the TTD Board of Trustees, which further increased its financial burden.
In this context, the Annadana Trust explained to the TTD that implementation of free meals in TTD college hostels from its funds was against the objectives of the Trust and that there was also scope that donors may approach courts.
It may also lose the benefit of income tax exemption, the Trust told the TTD. Ironically, the TTD has also stopped its contribution through matching grants proportionate to the donated amount to the Annadana Trust. Many feel that the TTD, while not contributing to the Anndana Trust by way of grants, has no moral right to put pressure on it by demanding that it circumvent its primary objective. Any additional expenditure, more than the interest earned on the Annadana Trust’s corpus fund, which is the primary source of its income, has to be met from the TTD’s general funds.
–Agencies–