The new Board of Trustees of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), as reconstituted by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, has announced extensive transformation measures at the Sri Venkateswara Swamy Temple, starting with the improvement in the quality of laddoo prasad. of a recent controversy over its purity.

New standards are being specified to improve the quality of ghee used in making prasad consumed by thousands of people every year. Tirumala should also become a model city with a spiritual ambience.

“The decisions are aimed at increasing efficiency in temple management, improving the experience of devotees and safeguarding their religious sentiments,” said new TTD chairman BR Naidu, stressing that addressing concerns related to laddoo prasad was a top priority.

“We are appointing an expert committee to decide on the choice of ghee for making laddoo prasad and setting up a very high-quality laboratory to test its quality. The lab will cost around Rs 90 lakh. We are committed to maintaining the purity and sanctity of temple offerings, which are of immense importance to devotees across the world,” he said.

In another devotee-friendly measure, the TTD has decided to adopt artificial intelligence to significantly reduce queues for free darshan (“Sarva Darshanam”) to around three hours. “Queue management is complex. Our priority is to provide faster and more convenient access by reducing the waiting time of devotees from over 12 hours on peak days to just three hours,” Naidu said.

On a separate note, the TTD has decided to send all non-Hindu staff of the Tirupati temple to other government departments, such as revenue or municipal administration, or allow them to opt for a voluntary retirement. This is in line with Chandrababu Naidu’s promise during the Assembly election campaign.

The decision will affect around 300 of the TTD’s 7,000 permanent employees. There are another 14,000 contractual employees under TTD, headed by J. Syamala Rao as managing director. Rao, a senior IAS officer in the Andhra government, was appointed to the post in June. “There is an urgent need for a vision document. The TTD will create an urban development and town planning wing for this purpose,” Rao said.

Besides dismissing all non-Hindu staff, the TTD board decided not to allow the spread of any other religion in Tirumala. “There is no question of allowing the propagation of any religion other than Hinduism. We also impose a ban on politicians or others making politically charged comments on the Tirumala Hills. If anyone indulges in this practice, we will file a case against him,” President Naidu said.

Modifying the decisions taken during the previous rule of the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP), the TTD board restored the name of the Tirupati flyover to Garuda Varadhi, from Srinivas Setu, as the YSRCP christened it. Additionally, the Sri Venkateswara Alaya Nirmanam Trust (SRIVANI), established under the YSRCP administration in September 2019 to promote Hinduism and finance temple construction, is being dissolved. Donations to the trust, linked to ‘VIP darshans’ at the Tirumala temple, were popular among devotees as they helped avoid excessively long queues.

The SRIVANI accounts will be merged with the main TTD account following doubts over its operations. According to TTD sources, the SRIVANI Trust, since its launch in 2019, had collected donations to the tune of Rs 1,086 crore from one million devotees, who had contributed Rs 10,000 each.

After the Telugu Desam Party, Jana Sena and the BJP, which were then in opposition, alleged irregularities in the SRIVANI Trust, the then TTD administration issued a white paper rejecting the allegations of corruption. An investigation has been opened into the alleged irregularities.

The TTD board has decided to reinstate darshan for Tirupati residents on the first Tuesday of the month. In order to check irregularities, the practice of providing darshan quota tickets to tourism companies in several states was stopped due to suspicion of misuse of this privilege. “There was blatant misuse of these darshan tickets, as revealed by a vigilance investigation. We don’t need a tourism-sponsored darshan. We are a religious institution,” President Naidu emphasized.

The TTD, in another important decision, has decided to reclaim Visakha Sarada Peetham land and regain control over it after canceling the lease. The board held that the Visakha Sarada Peetham was constructed in disregard of rules. “The entire structure will be razed and the land reclaimed,” Naidu said. Revoking another order of the YSRCP government, which reversed the previous Chandrababu Naidu government’s decision to develop the Deva Lokam project and allocated 20 acres on Alipiri Zoo Park Road for a five-star hotel project, the council has decided to request the state forest department to restore the land lease for the Deva Lokam project.

Rao said the TTD board also decided to enhance the spiritual ambiance in Tirumala by giving existing cottages divine names. “For this, TTD plans to publish a list of around 150 divine names for cottage donors to choose from,” he said.

Rao also said that the legacy waste, which has accumulated over the past few years, will be disposed of in the next two to three months in Tirumala. “The ultimate aim of the TTD is to ensure that every square inch of Tirumala reflects its spiritual significance,” he asserted.

President Naidu is optimistic that the reforms he has initiated will enable the Tirupati shrine to retain its pre-eminent status as the largest place of worship in the country.

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