The Andhra Pradesh government is planning to constitute approximately 463 temple trust boards in the near future, an exercise that will involve the nomination of over 4,400 members to the new boards. The state government currently has 1,516 temples for which trust boards are constituted periodically to manage the affairs of these sacred places of worship. The TDP-led NDA alliance, after forming the government in 2024, has so far formed trust boards for around 1,000 temples. The process of constituting boards for the remaining 500-odd temples was delayed due to certain complex issues.
End of Two-Year Wait
Ending a two-year-long wait for thousands of aspirants within the NDA alliance, the government has decided to expedite the constitution of new trust boards, taking into account factors such as coalition dharma, poll promises, caste and gender equations, among others.
Minister's Statement
Endowments Minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy stated that the NDA government in the state constituted new trust boards for 956 temples after coming to power in 2024, while the exercise for about 560 temples had to be deferred due to court cases and other issues. He explained, "Out of the 560 temples, 97 were already embroiled in cases. The government was forced to defer the exercise for some temples as most of the chairmen and board members nominated by the previous YSRCP regime refused to step down and threatened to create legal hurdles. We decided to allow those trust boards to complete their requisite tenure, which is why we had to wait for over two years to take up the exercise of constituting new trust boards for those temples."
Classification by Income
Now that the tenure of most trust boards constituted during the YSRCP regime is ending, the government has started the process to constitute new trust boards for 463 temples across the state, classified into different categories based on income range. The minister added, "While there are around 362 temples in the ₹5 lakh to ₹25 lakh income range for which new trust boards with nearly nine members each will be constituted soon, around 69 temples falling under the income range of ₹25 lakh to ₹1 crore will also get new trust boards. Similarly, 15 temples in the income range of ₹1 crore to ₹5 crore, 14 temples in the income range of ₹5 crore to ₹20 crore, and three temples in the income range of above ₹20 crore will also get new trust boards within a couple of months."
