Families of deceased archakas left in the lurch: Dikshitulu

Honorary chief priest A.V. Ramana Dikshitulu stirred a fresh controversy on Friday when he took to the Twitter demanding that the families of deceased archakas be sanctioned financial help.

Tagging Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and TTD Chairman Y.V. Subba Reddy in his tweet, Mr. Dikshitulu said, “No protection of any kind has been given to the families of the deceased though a senior pradhana archaka, who was illegally retired by the trust board, died fighting for restoration of the hereditary system and a junior priest breathed his last serving in the temple.”

It was only during last month that the TTD Chairman had urged him to refrain from airing his grievances, if any, on social media platforms and, instead, bring them to the notice of the management in his capacity as honorary priest and agama adviser. The advice had come when Mr. Dikshitulu had kicked up a controversy alleging that the authorities were still obeying former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and were reluctant to implement the court orders given in favour of archakas.