Utmost transparency being maintained in Srivani Trust operation, says EO

Tirupati: The ‘Media Fact Finding Committee’ on Srivani Trust funds on Tuesday met TTD Executive Officer AV Dharma Reddy and financial advisor and chief accounts officer (FA&CAO) O Balaji who explained the trust operation including the donations from the devotees and utilisation of the funds for construction of temples.

Dharma Reddy informed that so far 3,000 temples were constructed covering interior places and the vulnerable weaker section colonies including SC, ST and fishermen localities to strengthen their bondage with the Sanatana Hindu Dharma.

Utmost transparency is being maintained in the entire trust operation covering collection of donations from devotees, finalising the proposals for temple construction and sanction of funds from the trust, the EO said adding that the TTD also initiated social audit on each of the temples constructed to ensure no misuse of the amount sanctioned for temple construction.

Stating that no organisation including the government took up the construction of temples on such a massive scale, he said Srivani Trust floated by TTD is heralding a new era in rejuvenation of temples.

He said the TTD is not washing its hands after sanction of funds but continuing its support to the temple construction by providing a monthly support of Rs 5,000 each to the temple for the conduct of Dupa, Deepa Naivedyams - daily ritual making the temples vibrant in keeping the mooring of the weaker section intact with our age old Hindu faith.

The EO said recently he explained the TTD’s Srivani Trust activities to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his visit to Tirumala to offer prayers to Lord Venkateswara, who was in fact surprised on knowing that TTD has so far constructed 3,000 temples in SC, ST and fishermen colonies and appreciated TTD for taking up temple construction on such a massive scale through Srivani Trust.

He said providing VIP break darshan against the donation of Rs 10,000 under Srivani Trust saw elimination of touts cheating the pilgrims eager to have good darshan, apart from giving the much needed fillip to temple construction.

FA&CAO Balaji said the trust fund is managed in a most transparent manner utilising 85 per cent of the funds for temple construction and the remaining 15 per cent is deposited in banks as corpus fund.

There is no cash dealing anywhere and even the devotees pay the donation amount of Rs 10,000 and the cost of break darshan which is Rs 500 each through credit or debit cards.

The media committee members shared their experience of visiting the temples constructed with Srivani Trust funds in various districts including Krishna, East Godavari, Guntur, Nellore, Tirupati and Chittoor districts. TTD chief engineer Nageswar Rao, CPRO T Ravi, Tirupati Press Club president and committee convener J Bhaskar Reddy and others were present.