Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Additional Executive Officer A.V. Dharma Reddy on Saturday slammed the leaders of various political parties for “levelling false and frivolous allegations” against the institution and hurting the sentiments of the devotees.
The management was ready to own responsibility for even the minutest error, if any, in the tendering process, Mr. Dharma Reddy said, and challenged the political party leaders as to what would be their take for “besmirching the image of the institution.”
“Hurling allegations for gaining political mileage is not tolerable,” he said.
Addressing the media, Mr. Dharma Reddy said the TTD was forced to go for open tenders as the bankers had expressed their inability to operate the various counters free of cost.
In fact, the bankers, in their letter, had specifically quoted that they were withdrawing their services as the Government of India was not reimbursing the expenses under the social message charges, he said.
This apart, the bankers had also expressed their disinclination as the counter operations also involved cash transactions.
But for the 16 counters being maintained by the HDFC and Indian Bank, all other bankers had withdrawn their operations from all the 181 counters in March 2020.
Left with no other alternative, the TTD has been managing the show since then with the help of 7FM agency and Srivari Sevaks.
It was against this backdrop that the TTD had resolved to entrust the responsibility of operating the counters to professional agencies.
It had invited tenders for four times in the last one-and-a-half years. As there was no proper response, the tenders were called for the fifth time, and the Bengaluru-based agency, KVM Info, which had quoted the lowest, was awarded the contract.
The agency also quoted ₹11,402 as salary for every employee it hired against ₹12,345 the TTD had paid to 7FM personnel.
This alleviated the financial burden on the TTD by ₹56.76 lakh a year, Mr. Dharma Reddy said.
Despite the best efforts, only 12 bankers had so far come forward to operate the counters on payment of ₹40,364 a month.
Mr. Reddy said the TTD was also open to hand over the operation of the counters to private parties on payment basis.
