T
he worst fears of Tirumala-Tirupati devotees seem to be coming true. After a temple priest admitted to pawning the Lord's jewellery for the last nine years, everyone is now waiting for the complete inventory of the Lord's jewels to be presented before the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
Corruption at the world's richest temple is Tirumala's worst kept secret. The TTD says everyday ornaments worth 50 crore rupees are kept in the treasury of Tirumala temple for daily use. Ornaments worth another 27 crore rupees are kept at two other temples near Tirumala.
A public interest litigation that alleged irregularities in the inventory of the Lord's ornaments set the cat among the pigeons. The High court has asked for an exhaustive list of the jewellery by September-end.
"We have records and no irregularities have been done in this temple,'' says D K Adikesavulu Naidu, Chairman, TTD.
This priest, popularly called Dollar Seshadri, is an officer on special duty (OSD), in charge of the Lord's jewellery.
Seshadri says, "There is no problem with the Lord's ornaments. They are safe. We are following the same system as earlier, they are more safe now.''
The Tirumala temple has an annual budget of 1400 crore rupees and a daily earning of two crore rupees and two kg gold from Hundi collection.
he worst fears of Tirumala-Tirupati devotees seem to be coming true. After a temple priest admitted to pawning the Lord's jewellery for the last nine years, everyone is now waiting for the complete inventory of the Lord's jewels to be presented before the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
Corruption at the world's richest temple is Tirumala's worst kept secret. The TTD says everyday ornaments worth 50 crore rupees are kept in the treasury of Tirumala temple for daily use. Ornaments worth another 27 crore rupees are kept at two other temples near Tirumala.
A public interest litigation that alleged irregularities in the inventory of the Lord's ornaments set the cat among the pigeons. The High court has asked for an exhaustive list of the jewellery by September-end.
"We have records and no irregularities have been done in this temple,'' says D K Adikesavulu Naidu, Chairman, TTD.
This priest, popularly called Dollar Seshadri, is an officer on special duty (OSD), in charge of the Lord's jewellery.
Seshadri says, "There is no problem with the Lord's ornaments. They are safe. We are following the same system as earlier, they are more safe now.''
The Tirumala temple has an annual budget of 1400 crore rupees and a daily earning of two crore rupees and two kg gold from Hundi collection.
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