The recent arrest of a priest on charges of mortgaging jewellery belonging to Tirumala Tirupati Devasathanams (TTD) in Tirupati is keeping the media busy the past week.
Though such incidents have taken place before in Tirumala, the media is going gaga this time as the priest’s arrest has thrown up concrete evidence of rampant corruption in the administration of the temple.
All the three major regional dailies — Eenadu, Andhra Jyothy and Sakshi — gave the incident equal importance. Eenadu and Andhra Jyothy went a step forward and carried reports of irregularities in the maintenance of TTD jewellery accounts.
Following the incident, trustees on the TTD board are coming out with details of corruption in the temple administration. Board chairman Adikeshavulu Naidu accused one trustee of constructing a private temple in Tirupati with TTD funds.
The trustee, in turn, alleged that the chairman himself had used temple funds to renovate his private guest house on the foothills of Tirumala. The vernacular media suspects that the arrest of the priest is just the tip of the iceberg.
Chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s call to the people of Andhra Pradesh to use common variety of rice has received mixed responses from the media. While Sakshi, a leading Telugu daily, has appreciated the move, Eenadu and Andhra Jyothy criticised the idea, though not in so many words.
Rains, which played havoc in most parts of the state in the past week, was another point of interest. Andhra Pradesh was all set to declare a drought-like situation with the state receiving about 50% less than normal rainfall. According to the vernacular media, over a dozen farmers have committed suicide.
However, following sudden rainfall in the past week, several parts of the state have been flooded. This has invited criticism from the media. The government is now mounting pressure on the banks to give more loans to farmers. With kharif plans not taking off, banks are exercising caution fearing repayment delays.
However, the government has called for a meeting of the bankers and asked them to release more loans irrespective of the prevailing situation. But the bankers have gone on record to say that the current situation does not encourage them to give out more loans since crops have almost failed in most parts of the state and the already released loans will also have to be rescheduled.
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