Employees of Telangana’s Endowments Department have accused a government adviser of wielding unchecked power over the department and its temple restoration projects, a charge that has spread through the department’s Hyderabad headquarters over the past several days.

The department currently has no minister. Konda Surekha was removed from the post, and no one has been assigned the portfolio since. Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has kept the department under his own charge. According to staff, he has told officials not to bring minor files to him and to send only major ones. Officers say they no longer know what to do with routine matters.

That gap has left the adviser, by staff accounts, running more of the department than before. A post built around one man

Department employees say the adviser’s post did not exist before the Congress government came to power. They say it was created specifically for him, giving him a path into the department’s affairs that earlier officials never had. The adviser’s role, they argue, has never been clearly defined, and the department has not been able to say what he is supposed to do.

The sharpest complaint concerns a review meeting about two days ago, held to discuss the restoration of a temple in north Telangana. Staff allege the adviser behaved as though he were the minister. In the presence of senior Endowments officials, he is said to have given instructions directly to the builders and did not let the officials speak. Critics within the department say this is not an isolated pattern.

Postings and the price of priesthood

Allegations about recent temple appointments are the most serious in the account. Employees and temple circles say large financial transactions took place in the recent round of postings, with some posts allegedly sold for lakhs of rupees.

A central claim is that the adviser arranged for a person from Tamil Nadu, who runs a Veda pathashala in Hyderabad, to be appointed as an examiner. Those who spoke to the reporter say that once that appointment was made, the postings that followed were effectively run through that individual’s hands. The allegation is that Vedapandit posts at many temples were bargained at around Rs 20 lakh each.

Temple circles add a further charge. They say senior department officials know who is responsible and claim they hold evidence, yet no action has been taken. People in those circles attribute the inaction to the adviser’s influence.

Funding is part of the same story. Staff say that when the Brahmin Parishad recently released money to Veda pathashalas, the operator linked to the adviser reportedly received between Rs 15 lakh and more than Rs 20 lakh. Pathashala operators in Telangana, by contrast, reportedly received only a few thousand rupees each. Several of those operators have voiced strong dissatisfaction, according to the report.

Sthapatis sidelined, contractors in charge

Temple architecture in Telangana is meant to rest on the expertise of sthapatis. Under the Endowments Department’s own structure, they are central to how temple buildings are designed and rebuilt. Whispers at the department’s Boggulakunta headquarters now suggest that the adviser has pushed them aside and works closely with contractors and architects.

According to the report, the adviser has travelled to the Kanchi and Sringeri peethas five to six times a month, at Endowments expense, often accompanied by contractors and architects. Staff say these visits are used for discussions that exclude the department’s own experts.

Where sthapatis do attend site visits, they are said to be present only in name. Employees claim their advice is not sought. Several department engineers have also been kept out of the work, even though the department employs them specifically for such projects.

Temples where restoration work is underway include Basara, Kaleshwaram, Vemulawada, Jogulamba, Bhadrachalam and the Yadadri Veda pathashala. Restoration at these sites is supposed to follow the agamas, the sacred rules that govern temple construction, while protecting historical and spiritual value. Critics allege that at Basara and Bhadrachalam, those rules have been set aside in favour of the adviser’s preferred approach. They say he has had designs drawn up by an architect from his own region and given work to contractors of his choosing.

Questions over past conduct

Religious scholars are asking why an adviser with this record still holds sway over projects worth thousands of crores. Former associates and others with knowledge of the matter point to past controversies involving the property of some mutts and peethas. In one phase, they say, a senior figure linked to a peetha was forced to face a police case because of entanglements connected to the adviser’s involvement in those matters.

Those who have worked with him claim his focus is on construction and gold-related work, and that he has accumulated crores of rupees this way. The same sources say a key official in the department has helped him steer temple postings, which is why the allegations about postings are seen as part of a broader pattern.

Vemulawada has drawn particular criticism. Critics argue that construction there is damaging the temple’s standing. They also claim the adviser has developed a close relationship with the archaka of an Anjaneya temple in Pattny Centre, and that he decided the shares of money for himself, for a key official, and for others. Local contractors are reportedly doing the work at Vemulawada, and critics say it is being carried out in a way that undercuts the temple’s prestige.

What the Chief Minister does next

The Chief Minister now holds the Endowments portfolio. That places him in a position to defend the adviser or to act on the allegations. Whether he backs the adviser or orders an intelligence report on his conduct and activities will be the question that determines how far this story goes. For now, the department’s employees have raised the charges in public, and the questions have not been answered by the government.

The central issue is simple. The people whose job is to protect temple architecture say they have been pushed aside, and the department’s own officers say they cannot act. Whether this is a case of overreach by one individual or a failure of oversight at the top will depend on what the government chooses to disclose.