In yet another major shock to former Union minister and veteran Telugu Desam Party leader, the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh has stripped the former of the posts of honourary chairman for 104 temples in the state.
In his place, the government has appointed Ashok’s niece Sanchaita Gajapathi Raju, chairperson of Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Devasthanam, Simhachalam, and Mansas Trust, as the chairperson of all these 104 temples in the state.
An order to this effect was issued by the state endowments department, following a representation made by Sanchaita on October 27. She represented that her father Ananda Gajapathi Raju was chairman of 104 temples as the founding family member.
Since Sanchaita is the legal heir of Ananda Gajapathi Raju, the department acknowledged her representation and made her the chairperson of the temples as a founding family member for those temples.
The commissioner ordered that all these 104 temples, whose annual income is less than Rs 2 lakh take steps to recognise Sanchaita as the founding family member.
Sanchaita will also be the chairperson of nine temples in East Godavari district henceforth. They include temples in Kotipalli, Ainavilli Lanka, Veeravallipalem and Chintalanka.
Naturally, Ashok felt humiliated with the government’s decision stripping him of the post of chairman of the temples.
“It is not correct on the part of the government to issue secret GOs overnight, replacing me with Sanchaita. This is an attempt to loot the properties of temples through her,” he alleged.
