Tirupati: Several politicians extended their support to the relay hunger strike taken up by Tirumala locals under the ‘Dharma Porata Deeksha’ plan to pressurise Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) administration and the state government to meet their long pending demands.
The locals resorted to the relay hunger strike after their repeated requests to officials of temple authority and state government failed to resolve their 19 demands.
The opposition party leaders and former TTD trustees including Bhumana Karunakar Reddy and Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy of YSRC, P. Naveen Kumar Reddy of Congress, CPI National Secretary K. Narayana, Pasupuleti Hari Prasad of Jana Sena and others visited the deeksha venue, in front of TTD administrative buildings on Thursday to extend their solidarity to the strikers.
As part of the implementation of master plan constituted for the development of Tirumala, the TTD acquired lands from hundreds of local families. The TTD promised rehabilitation including providing houses and shops to the locals under displacement category. The TTD has provided rehabilitation to some extent and left about 125 local families without any alternatives.
The recent decision of a subcommittee constituted by the trust board to sanction licenses to 450 non locals created resentment among the locals.
, who now took relay hunger strike, fighting against the temple management and government as well. “Under the tyranny of the officials, who managed the top post in TTD, we have been insulted many times when we approached them to address our grievances. After several requests and decades of patience, we are broken and now came out to raise our voice against the officials and the politicians, who given fake promises to us for the past years”, locals who addressed the gathering at the Deeksha venue one after another alleged.
