TIRUPATI: The head priest of Tirumala temple, Dr A.V. Ramana Dikshitulu, has once again dragged the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) administration into a fresh controversy by lodging a complaint with Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy in the form of a tweet, ahead of the latter’s visit to the temple city.
Dr Dikshitulu, who was reappointed as the head priest in April, on Sunday expressed his dissatisfaction over the alleged ill-treatment being meted out to him and all other reinstated hereditary priests by the TTD administration.
Tagging the chief minister, the head priest – on his official Twitter handle – tweeted: “@ysjagan great blessing presenting vasthram to Srivaru. Kind attention: Padmavati temple reinstated hereditary archakas not paid sambhavana since April. We have been made to run around courts by the TTD admin since 2018. Prevented from entering sanctum and doing puja. Kindly relieve archakas”.
“As per the government orders, all hereditary priests, including myself, who were sacked or forcibly retired, were reinstated in their respective roles in TTD. Despite the orders, we are not being allowed to perform pujas and other regular sevas in the temple”, he alleged during a telephonic conversation with Deccan Chronicle.
He also alleged that Padmavati temple hereditary archakas, who were reinstated, were not being paid sambhavna since April.
“To resolve all these issues, we were made to run around the courts by the TTD administration. Hence, I explained our issues in a tweet and tagged the CM asking him to intervene and get these sorted out”, he said.
It may be recalled that the TTD Trust board that was appointed during the Telugu Desam party regime, resolved to retire all archakas, who had crossed 65 years of age, in May 2018. Dr. Dikshitulu was forced to retire, a day after he made startling allegations against the TTD and the then state government. Three other priests – Narasimha Dikshitulu, Srinivasa Murthy Dikshitulu and Narayana Dikshitulu, were also ‘retired’ from temple services.
Following the instructions from the State endowments department, the TTD administration issued orders on April 2 this year, stating that all those who were forced to retire in May 2018, would be taken back.
However, Dr Dikshitulu’s appointment is said to be caught in a legal wrangle, with Venugopala Dikshitulu, another chief priest of Tirumala temple, filing a petition in the court challenging the former’s appointment, sources said.
