India Cements MD, Sudha Narayana Murthy among new members of Tirumala Board

The Andhra Pradesh govt-controlled Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) manages the famous Lord Balaji Temple along with dozen other temples, educational institutions, hospitals and others

Y S Jaganmohan Reddy-led Andhra Pradesh government has appointed new Board members for Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), which manages the Balaji Temple at Tirumala, one of the richest in the World.

The new Board, headed by Y V Subba Reddy as Chairman, now includes 8 members from AP, 7 from Telangana, 4 from Tamil Nadu, 1 from Delhi, 3 from Karnataka and another one from Maharashtra.

The Andhra Pradesh government-controlled Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) manages the famous Lord Balaji Temple along with dozen other temples, educational institutions, hospitals and others.

New members include UV Ramana Murthy (MLA), Mallikharjuna Reddy (MLA), K Parthasaradhi (MLA), Nadendla Subba Rao, DP Aantha, Chippagiri Prasad Kumar and K Parthasarathy (MLA) from Andhra Pradesh. Leaders including J Rameswara Rao, B Parthasarathi Reddy, U Venkata Bhaskara Rao, Mooramsetti Ramulu, D Damodar Rao, K Siva Kumar and Putta Pratapa Reddy from Telangana have also been given the opportunity to serve in the trust's board.

India Cements' Vice Chairman N Srinivasan, Krishnamurthy Vaidyanathan, Nichitha Muttavarapu and Kumaraguru (MLA) from Tamilnadu, MS Shiva Shankaran from New Delhi, Ramesh Shetty, Sampath Ravi Narayana and Sudha Narayana Murthy from Karnataka and Rajesh Sharma from Maharashtra are the other appointees.

The TTD Board functions like a local government – or a well-oiled corporation - headed by a chairman, who holds a cabinet rank. It also has an executive officer who in turn is assisted by two joint executive officers. These officials oversee 63 departments.

TTD's Budget for 2019-20 is around Rs 3,116 crore. A large chunk of TTD’s riches come from donations in cash and kind by ordinary devotees. Of the trust’s budget outlay of Rs 3,116 crore for 2019-20, cash offerings alone are projected at Rs 1,231 crore. Donations by business houses, interests on the trust’s bank deposits (Rs 846 crore), tickets for darshan and temple rituals (Rs 292 crore), besides sale of human hair (Rs 100-120 crore) and 'prasad' in the form of laddu (Rs 270 crore) are other sources of income. The temple also has gold reserves of over 9,000 kg of which some 7,200 kg are with two banks under gold deposit schemes.