KCR to present Rs55.9m ornaments to two temples
Telangana chief minister accused of fulfilling personal vows with taxpayers’ money
Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, accompanied by a 43-member entourage including his family and a team of ministers and top officials, arrived yesterday in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, on a thanksgiving mission.
He was in the temple town to fulfil his personal vow of offering gold ornaments to Venkateshwara temple on achieving a separate Telangana state.
KCR, as the Telangana chief minister is known, was accorded a warm welcome by the top officials of the Andhra Pradesh government and the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) at Renigunta airport.
He has brought with him gold ornaments worth Rs55.9 million (Dh3.07 million), including a 14.2 kilo gold necklace ‘Saligram Haram’ worth Rs37 million, another 4.65kg Kanta Abharanam and a nose stud.
However, the move has triggered a controversy with many questioning why he was burdening the public exchequer and spending the taxpayer’s money to fulfil a personal vow.
During his prolonged struggle for separate Telangana state, KCR had vowed to gift gold ornaments to many big temples both in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana if his dream turned into reality.
KCR, who spent the night at Padmavati Guest House, will visit the Venkateshwara temple this morning and offer the ornaments to the deity with elaborate rituals.
Later, he is scheduled to visit the Padmavathy temple at Trichunur and make an offering of the nose stud to the deity there.
The state administration had made meticulous preparations and constituted a three-member committee to look after the making of the ornaments. Responsibility of making the gold ornaments studded with gems and diamonds was given to a prominent jeweller in Hyderabad.
For KCR, who is on his maiden visit to the temple town since becoming Telangana chief minister, the Andhra Pradesh government has rolled out a red carpet and accorded him a warm reception, keeping aside the hard feelings and disputes generated by the bifurcation of the state in June 2014.
KCR was accompanied by his son and minister K. Taraka Rama Rao, daughter and parliamentarian K Kavitha, nephew and minister T Harish Rao, several ministers and top bureaucrats and police officials.