K Chandrasekhar Rao has donated ornaments worth Rs. 5.59 crore at Tirumala temple.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao's Rs 5-crore gift to gods from the public exchequer has now been questioned in courts. Mr Rao's gift to Lord Venkateshwara at Tirumala - to fulfill a promise made before Telangana got statehood - was paid by the state government. But it angered activists, who have approached the court demanding the Chief Minister pay for such gifts out of his own pocket. Using public funds for such purposes, the activists said, was illegal.
Activist Dr Lubna Sarwath, who had filed the petition at the Hyderabad High Court, said the court should recover whatever has been spent by the Chief Minister in the name of offerings from his private account.
The activists also want to know who paid the expenses for the Chief Minister's extended family, who went for the thanksgiving trip to Tirupati. Besides the Chief Minister, his wife, daughter, grandchildren and their families and six sisters had travelled by two special aircraft.
The activists say they want a white paper on expenses incurred from government funds in the form of offerings for religious purposes. "The logistics and expenses for his family and relatives and ministers should be paid by them from their account,'' Dr Sarwath said.
The officials of the Balaji temple had said that no government had ever presented gold ornaments to the lord.
A government order dated February 24, 2015, had said several crores will be paid from the Common Good Fund of the endowments department for offerings of gold to temples in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
The opposition Congress and the BJP have already questioned the Chief Minister's move to use public money to fulfil his "personal vows" made to gods.