TTD Trust Board member demands vigilance probe into ‘Tulabharam scam' in Tirumala during YSRCP government

The Hindu

19-05-2025

The BJP State spokesperson and a member of the TTD Trust Board G. Bhanuprakash Reddy has demanded a vigilance probe into what he termed as 'Tulabharam scam' at the abode of Lord Venkateswara during the erstwhile YSR Congress Party government.
Mr. Bhanuprakash Reddy formally addressed the complaint to Director-General of Police (Vigilance and Enforcement) and submitted the same to the Superintendent of Police (V&E), Tirupati, on Monday.
Tulabharam is a form of fulfilment of vow, where the devotees weigh themselves against banana, rice, jaggery, coins etc., and submit the same as an offering to Lord Venkateswara. Alternately, they pay an equivalent amount worth the offering.
In the complaint, he said that the amount offered by the devotees towards 'Tulabharam' had not reached the TTD exchequer during 2019-2024. His other charge was that an employee hired on contract basis was deployed to man the point, instead of a regular employee placed in the past.
'During the said period, the staff working at the Tulabharam had misappropriated lakhs of rupees daily by diverting the donated amount for their personal use', he said in the complaint.
Further, he said that the modus operandi was to remit a smaller amount in the bank to avoid suspicion and siphon off the remaining funds. 'This is a form of deceiving the devotees, which amounts to criminal breach of trust', he told the media later.
Immediately after coming to power in 2024, the NDA government had initiated vigilance probe into several cases of alleged irregularities, but 'Tulabharam' remained out of the department's radar, Mr. Bhanuprakash observed.
He suspected the hands of influential persons in the scam, as the scores of complaints received from the devotees during the previous regime had been relegated to the dustbin.