Barely weeks after the High Court allowed the construction of the dilapidated temple for Vakula Matha, considered the foster mother of Lord Venkateswara, on a hillock that was completely razed by the quarry industry, there is hectic activity in the vicinity once again.

Renovation work

Chandragiri MLA Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy

After TTD Trust Board member G. Bhanuprakash Reddy tonsured his head as thanksgiving and announced steps to reconstruct the temple, it was the turn of Kakinada-based Sri Peetham pontiff Sri Paripoornananda Swamy to take a plunge. The seer, who has been in the forefront on the issue for several years, announced on Tuesday that renovation work on the temple would start with fencing the vicinity and construction of steps.

Chandragiri MLA Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy undertook a ‘padayatra’ from the temple premises to the TTD administrative building on Wednesday.

He submitted a representation to Executive Officer D. Sambasiva Rao, requesting him to accord priority to the residents of Pathakalva village (where the temple is located) in local employment around the temple.

In reverence

The villagers had spent decades cutting stones from the edges of the hillock housing the temple, but stopped doing so after the temple gained prominence.