Complete rejig of TTD administration on the cards as new govt vows to restore sanctity of Tirumala hill town

TIRUPATI: With none other than the new Chief minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu himself mincing no words in making it explicitly clear that the cleansing up of the state from the misdeeds of the erstwhile YSRCP govt will begin with a clean-up exercise from the world renowned Tirumala shrine itself, a complete rejig of the entire top brass at the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams is on the cards.
While the erstwhile trust board appointed by the previous YSRCP govt has already resigned and the new TDP led NDA govt has sent the TTD additional EO and EO (FAC) AV Dharma Reddy on leave, the state govt has cleared decks to appoint new bureaucrats with a clean image at the helm of affairs at the richest Hindu temple trust in the country, in order to streamline the administration, in line with the sentiments of the devotees worldwide.
During his maiden press conference held at Tirumala on Thursday, the new CM expressed concerns over various issues such as black marketing of darshan tickets, decline in the quality of prasadams, artificial curbs on pilgrim footfall at Tirumala and imposing a curfew like atmosphere on the hill town, misuse of official positions to lobby in high profile court cases etc, as some of the issues that led to the degeneration of the spiritual atmosphere at the sacred abode of Lord Venkateswara.
And in order to streamline the systems at the biggest and the richest Hindu temples trust in the country, it is learnt that the new govt will appoint it's own team of bureaucrats in the posts of the TTD EO, JEO (Tirumala), JEO (Tirupati), Chief vigilance and security officer (IPS rank) at the TTD very shortly.
While 1997 batch IAS officer and Principal secretary J Syamala Rao's name is reportedly being considered for the TTD EO position, former TTD EO and present principal secretary to AP Governor Anil Kumar Singhal is also learnt to be in the race.
According to reliable sources in the AP govt, the erstwhile YSRCP govt appointed additional EO and EO (FAC) AV Dharma Reddy, who has been sent on a week's casual leave, might be transferred and asked to report to the GAD first, once the new bureaucrats are posted at the TTD.
It is learnt that many IAS officers in the state, heaved a big sigh of relief as Dharma Reddy's tenure at the TTD is finally coming to an end with a change of guard in the state govt now.
They recalled that the IDES official's clout with the erstwhile CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy was such that, he occupied the top posts of EO and additional EO in the TTD for several years by preventing the previous govt from appointing IAS officers in these twin posts.
Meanwhile, with the new CM also mincing no words in making it clear that though revenge was not his intention but that errant officials who went out of the way to appease the YSRCP govt by targeting the TDP in the past will not be spared at any costs, speculation is rife in the TTD that the TDP led NDA govt could dig deeper into the irregularities and scams reported at the Tirupati trust in the last five years during the YSRCP regime.