TTD has issued notices regarding the Visakhapatnam Sharada Peetham building in Tirumala asking to vacate the building within 15 days. Officials said that the rules were violated in the construction of the building. The court also ruled in favor of TTD in this regard. While the previous government had regularized the encroachments, public organizations staged protests.
During his first visit to Tirumala, soon after taking oath as Chief Minister, Chandrababu Naidu announced that his cleanup begins from Tirumala. A committee of TTD officials has submitted a report stating that encroachments have been made in the construction of the Visakhapatnam Sharada Peetham building.
TTD Chairman BR Naidu said in the board meeting that the encroachments of the Sharada Peetham will be removed based on this report. To this extent, TTD Estate Department officials have issued show cause notices to the Visakhapatnam Sharada Peetham.
The administrators of the Math approached the court on this. However, the court found that Math had violated the rules. In addition, it ruled that the TTD has the authority to take action against the Math. As per the court order, the TTD Estate Department has issued a notice to vacate the monastery and hand over the building within 15 days.
There are allegations that constructions have been carried out around this building near Gogarbham Dam against the rules. The Sharada Peetham was built on an area of about 20,000 square feet in Tirumala. However, the TTD says that illegal constructions have been carried out.
Although the government has announced that it is ready to demolish the building if necessary, the TTD intends to take possession of the building and use it for other purposes. It has become interesting to see how the Sharada Peetham will respond to these notices. Whether it will demolish the building and hand it over to the TTD? Whether it will approach the court again is yet to be clarified.
On the other hand, there have been also allegations that the Sharada Peetham has been involved in land grabbing in Visakhapatnam as well. During the previous government, this Peetham was allotted Rs. 250 crores of land in Bheemili mandal of Visakhapatnam district at a low price. The coalition government has cancelled those allocations.
However, there were complaints that the Sharada Peeth in Chinamushidiwada, Pendurthi Mandal, was built on government land. The revenue officials immediately conducted a survey and submitted a report. They found that there were some encroachments on government land. They also gave notices to vacate them. Overall, the issue of lands and buildings related to the Sharada Peeth in both Tirumala and Visakhapatnam has become interesting.