In a shocking incident, an employee of Sri Venkateswara Bhakti Channel (SVBC) reportedly shared the link of a pornography site to a devotee, instead of religious content, causing outrage among the devout.
Though the incident took place a couple of days ago, it saw light only after the Hyderabad-based devotee, Venkata Krishna, lodged a complaint with the TTD. The authorities immediately swung into action and ordered an internal enquiry. An attender on contractual employment was found to have erroneously sent the obscene link to the devotee instead of ‘Sathamanam Bhavathi’ programme through the official address sb@svbcttd.org.
The vigilance and cyber cell sleuths immediately zeroed in on the channel’s administrative office and sieved through the computers, hard disks, cameras, pen drives and other storage devices for filthy content, if any. The officials also took screen shots of certain objectionable content, online games, chats and social media buzz, which many employees were reportedly engaged in during office hours. The contract of the said attender was immediately terminated by the SVBC Chief Executive Officer, while others with a similar dubious track record were brought under scanner.
Speaking to The Hindu, highly placed officials in the TTD said that the unfortunate incident should be taken as an opportunity to initiate reforms to remove the chaff from the grain.
CB-CID probe sought
Meanwhile, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) lost no opportunity to nail the ruling YSR Congress for the incident that caused ‘loss of sanctity’. Tirupati LS constituency in-charge G. Narasimha Yadav and State secretary Soora Sudhakar Reddy led a demonstration in front of SVBC office here on Wednesday for making the TTD and its official channel a ‘rehabilitation centre’ to accommodate its political followers.
Telugu Desam vice-president Parasa Ratnam demanded a CB-CID inquiry into the incident. “Employees drawing pay from Sri Venkateswara’s Hundi should behave in a responsible manner. The TTD should henceforth choose the right people for such jobs,” demanded its former city president R.C. Munikrishna. Women’s wing leaders N. Vijayalakshmi and K. Pushpavathi, TNSF national coordinator A. Ravi Naidu and district president R. Anand Goud took part in the demonstration.
Meanwhile, Srikalahastheeswara Devasthanam former chairman P.R. Mohan asked the government to check if it was the handiwork of non-Hindus employed in SVBC. Congress leader P. Naveen Kumar Reddy appealed to the TTD to salvage the channel’s reputation by initiating tough action against such erring employees.
