The Srisailam Devasthanam officials busted a laddu scam on the temple premises on Wednesday. The irregularity was unearthed at the laddu counter run by the SBH. Three staffers found guilty were suspended, Devasthanam chairman E Koteswara Rao said.
In a bid to earn additional money, the bank staffers, posted at the laddu counters, have been breaking up the laddus supplied by the Devasthanam and selling them after converting them into smaller laddus. Further, they have also been selling the prasadam to devotees even without tokens.
Some devotees grew suspicious when laddus were sold without tokens to pilgrims from Guntur and West Godavari districts and they informed the Devasthanam officials.
SALE OF LADDUS: The Devasthanam has been selling laddus through two counters, run by the SBH and Andhra Bank. Laddus weighing 100 gm are sold for Rs10 while special laddus weighing 200 gm are sold for Rs 40.
There are allegations that the bank staffers have been downsizing the 100 gm into 65 gm laddus and 200 gm into 160 gm ones. As many as 40,000 laddus are sold on an average daily in the Srisailam temple limits.
During rush days, about 80,000-1 lakh laddus are sold per day. If two laddus are converted to three, around 60,000 laddus would have been made from the 40,000 supplied by the Devasthanam through which the bank staffers must have pocketed Rs 2 lakh per day.
It is learnt that they have been showing only Rs 4 lakh income to the Devasthanam. In the past, laddus were sold on the temple premises for just Rs 5. The laddus were all of the same size and same price and this made the Devasthanam incur a loss of Rs 3 crore per annum. Nearly 20 months ago, the officials began selling 100 gm and 200 gm laddus on ‘no profit no loss’ basis.
Speaking to Express, Devasthanam chairman E Koteswara Rao said they inspected the laddu centre after the scam was unearthed but no laddu was found underweight.
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