AP endowments Minister orders probe into chariot fire

The chariot of famous Sri Lakshmi Narasimha temple in Antarvedi of East Godavari district was gutted in a fire mishap in the early hours of Sunday.

Andhra Pradesh Endowments Minister Vellampalli Srinivasa Rao has termed the incident as an unfortunate one.

Rao has called on the endowments commissioner P Arjuna Rao and the district Superintendent of Police over the phone and inquired about the incident and the measures taken up after the incident.

He has appointed endowments additional commissioner Ramachandra Mohan as the inquiry officer and ordered stern action if it is proved to be the handiwork of any miscreants. The minister said that it is being probed whether the fire was caused due to negligence or sabotage.

The minister further suggested the endowments commissioner take steps for the construction of a new chariot.

The minister released a video in response to the chariot fire incident. In that video, he condemned the social media publicity that endowments department funds are diverted to government schemes. He said that such propaganda is baseless. No funds of any temple, or offerings by devotees to any temple or funds of endowments department are used for any government scheme.

Further, funds for Andhra Pradesh Brahmin Welfare Corporation, under various government schemes, were not from department funds but were direct allocations from the state budget, he said.

Minister Vellampalli Srinivasa Rao slammed opposition parties stating that they were engaged in malicious propaganda on the YSRCP government for their own political selfish motives.

In particular, Rao slammed TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu stating that he had "done many evil things against Hinduism."

People of all religions rejected Chandrababu Naidu and have opted for YS Jaganmohan Reddy, he said.

The minister appealed to the opposition parties not to hurt the sentiments of devotees with unnecessary criticism for their own political motives.

( With inputs from ANI )