TDP leaders looting temples' belongings

Visakhapatnam: Leader of Opposition in Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly and YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) President YS Jagan Mohan Reddy promised that after the YSRCP comes to power, the Brahmin community would be given due importance and recognition. As part of his mass outreach programme, Praja Sankalpa Yatra, the YSRCP chief today convened a meeting with the members of Brahmin community at Siripuram in the district here. Speaking on the occasion, YS Jagan said that in the last four years of Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu's rule, the Brahmins in the State were pushed into penury. Brahmins are unable to make two ends meet by serving as priests in temples, he added.

YS Jagan said that Chandrababu failed to deliver on a single promise out of the many he made. The TDP chief did not fulfill his promise of providing Rs 5,000 towards financial assistance to the poor people from Brahmin community.

"Chandrababu said he would scrap the rule on retirement age for priests. Yet, the government suspended Chief Priest Ramana Deekshitulu from his post. Not only did Chandrababu fail to keep his promise of providing nominated posts to Brahmins, he did not even give a party ticket to a Brahmin candidate," he added.

The YSRCP chief observed that instead of protecting the endowment properties, the TDP leaders were looting the temples' belongings. Chandrababu gave away 11 acres of the land belonging to Goddess Kanaka Durga temple in Vijayawada, to the management of Siddhartha College, he added.

The YSRCP fought hard to protect that lands of Sadavarti Satram from being sold at cheap prices by Chandrababu's government. In 2014, Chandrababu Naidu promise to form the Brahmin Corporation and allot Rs 100 crore per year. But, in the last four years, the government had spent Rs 164 crore.

The Leader of Opposition remarked that Chandrababu does not hesitate to lie inside sacred temples. In the name of Godavari-Krishna Pushkarams, the government wasted Rs 3,200 crore, he mentioned.

Adding that Chandrababu did not spare any opportunity to make money, he said adding that the government had given the Rs 7 lakh contract for cleaning service in temples to Chandrababu's relative Bhaskar Naidu for Rs 32 lakhs.