Tirupati: Master plan hits road block

Tirupati: The proposal to implement master plan by Srikalahasti devastanam has created unrest among the residents, where about 400 houses will be demolished for providing amenities to the devotees. The meeting arranged by Srikalahasti Tehsildar Ramesh Babu with residents to elicit their views on the proposed plan has not yie-lded positive results, where many of them asked about the compensation package.

The officials have decided to conduct another meeting with the residents in the coming days, with specific package proposals. The master plan proposal which was mooted in 2000, when Ajay Kallam was endowments commissioner, was pending due to pressure from local politicos. After TD came into power in 2014, the proposal to implement master plan has again come to fore which was being objected by the residents, who are supposed to lose their houses.

There are about 400 buildings which include lodges, shops,  houses, old age homes and also a government school from Bikshala gopuram to Lobavi, which are going to taken over by Devastanam to implement the master plan. For the last six months the master plan proposal got momentum, where several buildings were marked to undertake demolition. The residents approached local MLA and forest minister B. Gopalakrishna Reddy and urged his interference.

Mr Reddy has asked the devasthanam authorities not to create hardships to the people in the name of development.  He told them that without making alternative arrangements, no evacuation should be implemented, it is learnt. Meanwhile, the temple authorities who want to implement the master plan before Kumbhabhishekam, which is slated in February next year, are discussing the issue with district revenue officials.

According to sources in the revenue department, the temple authorities have been briefed over the complications regarding evacuating the residents from their own buildings without providing them alternative arrangements.  They recalled that when the master plan was implemented in Tirumala, the residents were provided with alternative houses in Tirupati. As far as Srikalahasti is concerned, the private buildings located adjacent to the temple cannot be dem-olished without providing compensation and alternative house sites to the owners of the buildings, they opined. There is every chance that the private building owners will approach judiciary if devasthanam didn't take their consent prior to implementation of master plan, they warned.