K Madhu Sudhakar By

Express News Service

KURNOOL: The fight for control over Ahobilam Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple continues as the Endowments officials and seers of Mutt have been at loggerheads over administrative affairs, hundi collection and other issues for the past two months.

Recently, temple protection movement convener MV Sundarajan has appealed to Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to prevent the Endowments Department from taking control of the temple.

It may be mentioned that separate accounts were opened by the Endowments officials to deposit collections without the knowledge of seers of Mutt. This has irked the Temple Trust as it felt that it was losing control over the temple. However, the seers of the Mutt seized the two accounts recently.

The Temple Trust has an account with Andhra Bank at Ahobilam, where all the receipts are deposited.

The payments for various services rendered to the temple are paid from this account. The Mutt officials said that the Andhra Pradesh government has been trying to gain control over the temple for the past few years.

When contacted, General Power of Attorney of Mutt S Sampath said that the temple has been under the control of Peetadhipathis of Ahobila Mutt since time immemorial.

The temple has several properties, including movable and immovable, running into hundreds of crores of rupees, which were being looked after by the Peetadhipathi of the Mutt, he pointed out.

He said that they had approached the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, which gave an interim direction ordering status quo in April this year. But temple executive officer G Mallikarjuna Prasad (appointed by Endowments Department) has been operating the bank accounts defying the court order, he added.

Speaking to Express, Mallikarjuna Prasad said that the Lakshmi Narsimha Swamy temple has been under the control of Endowments Department since 1961. “The temple was established with only Swamy’s Swayambhu (Self-manifested image of a deity) 2000 years ago at Ahobilam forest. The Endowments Department developed the temple and now it is netting Rs 10 crore from hundi and other deposits and donations,” he informed.