Hyderabad: There are no funds in the Common Good Fund of the Telangana state endowments department to fulfil the pledge made by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, offering Rs 5 crore worth of ornaments to the Lord Balaji temple in Tirupati.
Though it has been over six months since the TS Cabinet approved the donation in February 2015, the funds have not been released.
Mr Rao had vowed to make these offerings if he succeeded in achieving statehood for Telangana.
The CGF is set up under Section 70 (1) (a) of the Endowment Act and its fund are generated from the contributions made by charitable and Hindu religious institutions, whose annual income exceeds Rs 50,000.
Generally, these funds have to be utilised for renovation, preservation, maintenance of temples in need based circumstances, for Dhoopa Deepa Naivedyam to needy temples besides establishment and maintenance of schools that provide Vedic lessons.
However, the TS government has decided to use these funds for fulfil the vows of Mr Rao.
The endowments department was asked to place an order for making these ornaments five months ago but no orders were placed so far.
The reason there are no funds available with CGF for these ornaments and the department is struggling to allot even Rs 6,500 per month to each temple with no income to offer Dhoopa Deepa Naivedyam to deities.
