By Express News Service

TIRUPATI: Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy has demanded that the State government allow the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to audit the accounts of the Tirumala Tirupati Devastanams (TTD) for the past five years and make the report public.

Delivering a lecture on ‘Temples in India’ at a meeting jointly organised by Global Hindu Heritage Foundation (GHHF) and Save Temples at Sri Padmavathi Mahila Viswavidyalayam (SPMVV) here on Sunday, he recalled that he filed a case in the High Court of AP in this regard.

“I made two prayers to the court and one among the two is to give a direction to the State government to place the audit report of the accounts of the TTD for the past five years,’’ he said adding that the second one is to free temples from government control.

“Chandrababu (former Chief Minister) has not done anything in this regard. Now we have a new Chief Minister. I am asking him to allow the CAG or some other independent agency to audit the accounts of Tirumala temple for the past five years and tell us what happened to the money deposited by the devotees,” he stated.

Speaking on his second prayer to the court, he said that the court asked him if not the government, who will manage the affairs of the temple. “There is a Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee which has been conducting elections for all Gurudwaras in the country without the involvement of the respective governments.

Looking at the Sreepeetham seer who was also present, he said, “Now seers of all Peethams should come forward and form a mechanism like Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee to take over the temples in the country.” He requested the directors of the GHHF to conduct an international seminar on the issue of maintaining temples without government interference and asked it to give some inputs to him on how the temples should be taken over and managed.

On the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya of Uttar Pradesh, the Rajya Sabha member made it clear that the foundation for the temple will be laid on April 2, 2020 and the temple will be ready by 2022. He said by that time a big airport will be ready in Ayodhya.

Sreepeetham seer Swami Paripoornananda Saraswati, who was also present, said out of 22,000 employees working in the TTD, 15 to 20 per cent of them are non-Hindus.

“We will meet Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy soon and request him to shift the non-Hindus working in the TTD to other government departments,” the seer said.

“Firstly, we will make Rayabaram (consultation) with the State government. If nothing happens, we will choose Rajakeeyam (Politics) and then we will resort to Kurukshetram (war),’’ he maintained.

GHHF board of directors Prakasa Rao Velagapudi, Rama Sarma Kasibhatla and Bopanna Vinay were also present.