The Civic Society of Tirupati on Monday unanimously resolved to demand that the TTD release funds for the development of the town and maintenance of sanitation.
At a programme ‘Tirupati Parisubrata - Abhivruddhi’ organised in a private function hall, the elite and leaders of various political parties said that Tirupati Municipal Corporation (TMC) was burdened with the additional pressure of pilgrims thronging for the darshan of Lord Venkateswara despite its poor wherewithal.
The town which has a population of around five lakhs is also experiencing over a lakh footfalls daily.
How can the TMC meet the sanitary requirements of residents and the pilgrims with its skeletal staff of about 1,100 personnel they questioned and underlined the need to petition the State government for additional recruitment of over 1,650 sanitary workers on a war- footing. The government should sense the gravity of the issue and direct TTD for the release of funds in addition to the recruitment of sanitary workers.
Pointing out that the town ranks one among the top 10 clean cities under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the speakers said that it was rather imperative to focus on the maintenance of hygiene and sanitation to scale further heights in other aspects as well.
The TTD which owns vast swathes of land and landed properties in the town was availing of several concessions in one form or the other on the pretext of it being a religious organisation which they opined was proving detrimental to financial health of the TMC.
While some of the speakers proposed to divert Srivani trust funds to TMC a few others suggested collecting toll from the vehicles of the pilgrims on the outskirts of the town as is being done in several of the spiritual towns across the country.
CITUC district secretary K. Murali questioned the propriety of spending huge funds for the construction of temples across the country undermining the requirements of the town which he said was groaning under the impact of visiting crowds.
CPI leader B. Tulasendra was also critical about indiscriminate spending of TTD funds on the pretext of promotion of culture and tradition introduced a resolution entrusting the responsibility of seeking funds on Tirupati MLA and TTD Chairman B. Karunakar Reddy which was unanimously endorsed by the meeting.
Former director of TTD Sri Venkateswara Employees Training Academy (SVETA) Bhumana Subramanyam Reddy, who anchored the programme, said the resolution would be submitted to the TTD board of trustees for a positive consideration.
