Days after cancellation of 15 acres of land illegally allotted to Sharada Peetham in Visakhapatnam at a nominal price by the YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s government, the TTD swing into action and canceled the allotment of additional space that was ‘illegally’ constructed by the Jagan government for them.
Moreover, the TTD has also been directed to follow the rules and regulations regarding the constructions in this place occupied by Sarada Peetham. Sharada Peetham in Tirumala has occupied an additional 20,000 square feet, then actually allotted 5,000 square feet space previously to it by the TTD. It has taken up constructions illegally without permissions.
During the previous government, the TTD board took a decision to regularize this place and the government approved it as is. Recently, the coalition government canceled these proposals. In 2007, the TTD allotted sites to 31 Mathas, Peethams and other charitable institutions related to Hinduism in Tirumala.
In this process, Sharada Peetham was also allotted 5,000 square feet of land near Tirumala Gogarbham Dam on lease. But the Sharada Peetham occupied more than its allotted space in the beginning. It has also built buildings beyond the permission.
At the beginning of 2019, TTD officials conducted unannounced inspections in some of the 31 mathas and satrams. Visakha Sharada Peetham, Sri Ranganathaswamy Math, Sri Siddheshwari Peetha-Maunaswamy Math have been found to have occupied more TTD spaces than allotted.
It has been found that the Visakha Sharada Peetham has occupied another 2,150 square feet in addition to the 5,000 square feet allotted to it. By the time TTD regularized this space, the additional space of 2150 square feet had surprisingly increased to 20,000 feet, which was regularized without any hesitation.
The organizers of Visakha Sharada Peetham in Tirumala have also violated the norms at every step. In the first construction undertaken in 2007, they acted as an intermediary.
Soon after the formation of the coalition government, it focused on improving the situation in TTD. In addition, a person named Omkar from Tirupati filed a PIL in the High Court. TTD EO Shyamala Rao brought to the notice of the government that the additional places occupied by the Sharada Peetham had been regularized.
The Government overturned those decisions, refusing to ratify the decision of the previous board. TTD has been directed to take action in accordance with the rules in this regard.