For around 5,000 residents of Tirumala, availing benefits of any welfare scheme used to be a hassle until recently as they had to travel to Tirupati.
But now, the setting up of a village secretariat here has rekindled new hopes among the residents. It is after five decades that they are given an opportunity to reap the benefits of the welfare schemes.
As per official sources, it was in 1964 that the pilgrim town was declared a notified Panchayat with TTD Executive Officer as its president. But no elections were organized till date.
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams(TTD), in course of implementation of its plan of widening the roads and developing the town, had acquired all the private properties under the Land Acquisition Act and shifted the displaced families to Thati thopu, Mangalam and Sapthagiri Nagar on the outskirts of Tirupati. Some of them, who were owners and who were averse to moving to Tirupati, were rehabilitated at Balaji Nagar at Tirumala. By the year 2004, the acquisition of private properties was almost completed.
Since then, people here have been deprived of any benefits under any of the government-sponsored schemes. Their plight was brought to the fore when local legislator B. Karunakar Reddy raised the issue on the floor of the Assembly. Speaker Tammineni Sitaram had then questioned whether there really existed any local population at Tirumala.
Mr. Karunakar Reddy had also taken up the issue to the notice of the Chief Minister before finally getting the nod for the setting up of the village secretariat.
The TTD has recently allocated a cottage at its ‘D’ type quarters temporarily for the setting up of a secretariat.
Tirumala Sthanikula Samskhema Sangham president M. Muni Reddy thanked the government for its initiative.
