The TTD employees Joint Action Committee (JAC) on Saturday dashed off a strong letter to Executive Officer Anil Kumar Singhal demanding insurance to Covid-19 patients and compensation to those who succumbed to the infection.
In the letter, the TTD employees JAC pointed out that at least 250 staffers contracted the virus and all those who were infected should be given insurance protection. Further, the TTD employees JAC demanded Rs 10 lakh compensation to all the employees who succumbed to the infection. The letter comes in the wake of TTD employee Veeraswamy who died on Friday while undergoing treatment at SVIMS hospital. The family members of the deceased TTD employee alleged lack of proper treatment at SVIMS hospital. Recently, former TTD chief priest Srinivasa Murthy Deekshitulu had died due to Covid-19 while taking treatment at SVIMS.
Further the JAC also demanded that the TTD Trust Board provide all the employees with ISI standard N-95 masks and set up at least four Covid-19 testing centers. The JAC also demanded that the TTD Trust Board introduce a shift system with only 33 per cent staff strength on a rotational basis, and also allow the employees to report work after 11 am as the complete lockdown in Tirupati will be in force till that time.
Earlier, the TTD Staff and Workers United Front had written to the TTD Executive Officer requesting that darshan at the temple be temporarily suspended. Apart from archakas, at least 140 TTD employees are known to have tested positive for Covid-19
Several TTD employees and archakas (assistant priests) were tested positive for Covid-19. More than 150 TTD employees were tested positive for the virus after temple darshans were re-opened after the coronavirus imposed lockdown was lifted.
At least 15 archakas working at Tirumala temple tested positive for COVID-19 and were shifted to Tirupati where they were admitted to various hospitals. Honorary chief priest and agama advisor Ramana Dikshitulu had appealed to the TTD to close the shrine to devotees for a few weeks to protect the priests. TTD Pedda Jeeyar Swamy Sri Satagopa Ramanuja Pedda Jeeyangar had recently tested positive for Covid-19 and was shifted to Apollo Hospital in Chennai.
However, TTD Trust Board chairman Y V Subba Reddy on July 16 ruled out suspension of darshans while reacting to Deekshitulu’s tweet. While the Andhra Pradesh government had reimposed complete lockdown till August 15 in Tirupati, the TTD is yet to temporarily suspend Sri Vari ‘darshans’. Tirumala was exempted from complete lockdown despite the fact that several TTD employees, priests and devotees contracted the virus.
Earlier, Anil Kumar Singhal had denied that devotees contracted the infection. “None of the devotees have any health issues. We called 700 devotees between June 18 to 24 and called 1,943 devotees between July 1 to 7. All of them replied that they are healthy,” he had stated.
The TTD’s adamant stand in not suspending ‘darshans’ came under sharp criticism, many commented that the TTD Trust Board was more interested in filling its coffers showing little or no concern to the devotees, priests or the TTD employees. TTD Trust Board chairman and EO remained silent on the temporary suspension of ‘darshans’ despite demand from various quarters.
