ACB’s surprise inspection unearth irregularities in famous Vemulawada temple
Hyderabad: A surprise inspection carried out by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) at the famous Sri Raja Rajeshwara Swamy Temple in Vemulawada of erstwhile Karimnagar district found several irregularities committed by the staff.
Following a series of complaints and petitions received physically and through emails related to irregularities in Vemulawada temple from devotees, a special team from ACB conducted searches at the temple and found variations in the stock register pertaining to ghee, cashew nut and oil.
When asked about the variations, the staff initially hesitated to divulge details and after being grilled, they said that they examine the stock register only weekly once. When they inspected the register in detail, the officials found less stock of ghee compared to an order placed in the indent.
Without any approval of tenders by the Commissioner of Endowments department, the temple staff was found to be following the process of purchasing the items and violating norms. The team found that the staff was adopting the same method of getting ghee, cashew nut and oil for more than a decade and causing loss to the temple and the government exchequer to a large extent.
“We found only 50 per cent of the stock in the office as against the actual order placed in the indent,” a senior ACB official, who coordinated the searches, told Deccan Chronicle on Saturday. He said the staff was selling substandard quality of ‘laddu’ prasadam to devotees while supplying neatly packed laddus to VIPs visiting the temple to avoid any suspicion.
“We found a huge difference in the quality of laddus given to devotees and VIPs,” he explained. Further, the staff was found to be demanding additional Rs.50 and Rs.100 from each devotee for head tonsuring at ‘kalyanakatta’ in violation of norms.
“Even before starting his work, the staff is insisting on devotees to give additional money to them,” the ACB official said. The senior ACB official said the irregularities found in the temple during the inspection was only a tip of the ice-berg. “As of now, we only conducted a surprise inspection based on which a report was submitted to the ACB Director-General CV Anand for further action in consultation with the Endowments department,” he said.
He underscored the need for a comprehensive probe into irregularities being committed in the temple.
