Devotees levelled serious allegations of extortion of huge amounts of money by the personnel of the sub-registrar office at Tirumala.
The victims alleged that the staff bluntly fleeced them with exorbitant charges for providing them the marriage registration certificates.
As an incentive for the poor pilgrims desirous of getting married atop the town the TTD has constructed ‘Kalyana Vedika’ where the interesting couples can enter into a nuptial knot at free of cost.
The couples are requested to produce certain documents like Aadhaar, tenth class study certificate, photos, wedding cards, and other relevant proofs along with three witnesses besides marriage related articles like rice, turmeric, jaggery, new clothes.
The only fees they are asked to pay is a meagre Rs. 300/- towards the melam (musical band) charges.
For the benefit of the newly married couples, TTD has also permitted setting up of a government sub-registrar office in its premises enabling them to instantly secure their marriage certificates.
Taking advantage of the situation where people from different parts of the state throng the venue, the office personnel are said to have been collecting Rs. 2,000 additionally against the minimum fees of Rs. 500/- for issuing the certificates.
Perturbed at the spate of growing complaints, the TTD vigilance and security sleuths conducted an impromptu raid and recovered huge amounts of cash from the office personnel Hemanth kumar and much to their dismay also found cigarette packets (which are strictly prohibited atop the town) in his possession.
The issue which came into light recently when a new couple Suman and Bhagya Lakshmi lodged a written complaint with the vigilance officials.
As a damage control measure, the authorities late on Tuesday pasted a notice in the office premises, notifying the documents to be produced, besides specifying the exact nominal fees to be paid towards the collection of marriage certificates. (eom)
Published – September 12, 2024 05:38 am IST