The appointment of 1993 batch IAS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre, Anil Kumar Singhal, as the Executive Officer of the esteemed Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) is mulled with controversies. Singhal, who was the resident commissioner of AP Bhavan, New Delhi, won the heart of the chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu but not the bureaucrats and politicians.
The government has ever since appointed IAS officers who belonging to South India to the TTD executive officer’s post. Those opposing the appointment claim that it is not mere IAS post but TTD EO should understand Hindu especially South Indian culture and TTD concords. They also said that it is very difficult for Singhal who hails from Himachal Pradesh to understand the TTD conventions and culture.
The IAS officer was allocated to Telangana after the bifurcation but he opted Andhra Pradesh. Allegedly Singhal played vital role in not only routing the Central funds but also framing the critical Special Package for the State. While on one hand Singhal seemingly has support of Telugu MPs, on the other hand speculations are rife that TDP government bowed to pressure from the central government and Sangh Parivar.
When there are allegations that North Indians are dominating South Indians, the first one to respond is obviously Jana Sena party chief Pawan Kalyan. He took to twitter and questioned, “Would they allow any South Indian to take up the administrative position of such scared shrine of Northern India like … “Amarnath Varanasi and Madhura etcetra…”
Taking it further Swami Swaroopananda Saraswati, terming the appointment as “unfortunate”, said if needed he would knock the doors of the court.
Nonetheless, Singhal who took charge on Saturday as the 25th TTD EO will be at the helm of temple for two years. He conducted a whirl wind inspection covering all the prominent places in Tirumala and also interacted with the pilgrims on Sunday. The road ahead of Singhal is tough, especially the never ending pilgrim-related problems, loss of over 200 crore rupees in the sale of laddus and distribution of funds to the tune of Rs. 125 crore for various projects. Several projects under TTD are not giving the expected results.
