Naidu's TTD jobs remark stirs row in temple town Tirupati
Chandrababu Naidu's advice to the TTD to trim permanent staff and use volunteers has triggered criticism from the YSRCP and CITU in Tirupati.
A suggestion by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu that the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) should scale back permanent employment and rely more on volunteers has unsettled Tirupati, a city whose economy revolves around the temple.
During a recent visit to the Tirumala temple, Mr. Naidu is said to have advised the TTD to reduce its permanent staff and make greater use of Srivari Sevaks — the volunteers the board enlists to regulate queue lines, tie garlands and distribute food to waiting pilgrims.
The remark has left contract and outsourcing workers, many of whom had hoped to move into permanent roles, anxious about their prospects. It has also surprised leaders of the ruling party, coming as it does ahead of local body elections.
Bhumana Karunakar Reddy, a former TTD chairman and president of the undivided Chittoor district unit of the YSR Congress Party, was the first to respond. In a press statement issued in Tirupati on Friday, he said the Chief Minister's position betrayed a poor grasp of how the TTD functions.
"Mr. Naidu aspires to stay permanently as the State's Chief Minister, but does not want permanent jobs in the TTD," he said, adding that the board is a leading source of employment for a district short on industrial and services-sector development. He said the YSRCP, if it returns to power in 2029, would fill vacant TTD posts and reserve 75% of them for locals.
The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) also pushed back. Its State vice-president, Kandarapu Murali, called the Chief Minister's statement objectionable and said it undercut the work of TTD employees.
"We are not against the TTD roping in volunteers, but their services can never be treated as an alternative to the role of permanent employees," he told a press conference.
Mr. Murali disputed Mr. Naidu's claim that half of the TTD's earnings go towards wages and salaries. Citing the board's 2025-26 budget, he said the salary component stood at ₹1,773.75 crore against a total outlay of ₹5,258.68 crore, or 34%. That figure, he added, also covers the limited wages paid to contract, outsourcing and temporary staff, and cannot be described as salaries.