TTD board defends assets sale as nothing new; shifts blame to previous board under TDP regime

Subsequent to the DH report of May 15 that the temple trust was mulling to liquidate devote donated assets to tide over COVID-19-created revenue crisis, a 30 April notification of the TTD to auction 23 properties in Tamil Nadu was revealed

The TTD, which is facing flak over a plan to sell devotee-donated assets, has defended its move saying that the practice of selling immovable, non-maintainable and not useful properties has been in practice since 1974.

According to TTD Chairman YV Subba Reddy, between 1974 and 2014, 129 such immovable properties were disposed of in public auction.

Subsequent to the DH report of May 15 that stated the temple trust was mulling to liquidate devote-donated assets to tide over COVID-19 created revenue crisis, a 30 April notification of TTD to auction 23 properties in Tamil Nadu was revealed.

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Following the opposition onslaught, Reddy clarified that TTD has decided to auction 50 immovable properties in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu which are unviable and prone to encroachment.

“As per the government orders of revenue (endowments) department in 1990, the TTD Board is competent to sale, exchange, and mortgage the immovable properties, if found beneficial to TTD,” Reddy said.

Reddy, a former YSRCP Lok Sabha MP who became the TTD chairman last year after Jaganmohan Redy became the CM, has stated the assets sale move as an extension of a January 2016 resolution by the TTD, during the previous TDP regime.

“The present board, in continuation of process commenced by the previous board, has approved the upset rate for public auction in its resolution dated 29-02-2020 for disposal of the said 50 immovable properties worth Rs 23.92 crore,” Reddy said while stressing that Jaganmohan government is unconnected with the sale decision.

DH report had referred to a Rs 100 crore monetization fund proposed in the TTD’s 2020-21 budget, by way of liquidating unviable properties and vacant cottages, which officials said could be expanded to compensate for lockdown income loss.

Speaking to DH, IYR Krishna Rao, retired AP chief secretary who earlier served as the TTD executive officer said, “It is a wrong move. For no purpose should temple lands be sold. Fixed deposits, created from devotee hundi donations, could be used under such circumstances.”

Properties set for auction now are tiny house plots varying between one and five cents, farmlands ranging between 10 cents and under one acre which are non-maintainable and non-revenue generating properties for TTD, the chairman said.