Minister for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman who hails from Andhra Pradesh has turned down the request of the TTD for exchanging the old currency. Around 50 crores were collected by the TTD Hundi during the demonetisation time.
Former Chairman of the TTD Subba Reddy said following the central government’s decision on demonetisation on November 8, 2016, the TTD, too, had stopped collecting the banned currency in the denomination of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 at all its sale counters across the country as per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines.
“However, the TTD has no say when it comes to the offerings made by the devotees in the temple hundi. They continued to make cash offerings in the demonetised currency of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, even after the closure of window period announced by the RBI for exchange of demonetised currency notes,” he said.
The finance minister earlier assured Subba Reddy that she would talk to the central bank authorities and see what best she could do in this regard. But so far nothing has been done in this connection.
51 crore is not a big amount to the Central Government and it can give the same as a special grant for the development of the Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam.
