Anti-terror cops to guard Yadadri shrine

Hyderabad: The Yadadri shrine will have a tight security cover when it reopens next year. The Yadadri Temple Development Authority (YTDA) has consulted national security agencies as well as the TS Special Protection Force (SPF) to draw up the security plan.

The YTDA will build a strong room to the northwest of the sanctum sanctorum. YTDA chairman G. Kishan Rao said Room No. 8 inside the temple would be dedicated for the strongroom.

“We will store the temple jewellery in the strongroom. We are developing it as per the norms of the Reserve Bank of India. Room No. 7 is dedicated to Parakamani.”

Temple executive officer N. Geetha Reddy said the presiding diety, Lord Narasimha Swamy, had 39 kg of gold and 1,753 tonnes of silver ornaments.

A source said the priests would use the first floor of the strongroom to store regular articles used for puja. The Parakamani will be modelled on the lines of the one at Tirumala.

Once the temple complex opens, the regular security personnel will be deployed inside while a platoon strength of Octopus personnel, a company of SPF police and a platoon of local police including Armed Reserve will secure the complex.