Tirumala, October 31, 2013: Several Hindu organisations on Tuesday reiterated their demand to the government to close down the Heera Islamic University coming up at Thondavada on the city outskirts.

The six-storeyed edifice overlooks the imposing Tirumala hills and is just 6 km away from the foot of the hills. Hindu Jana Jagruthi Samithi, at a media conference, accused the management of flouting norms laid down by various agencies. “It is wrong to construct the building in the ‘Koneru’ (tank) of Sri Thimmappa (Venkateswara) temple built by Tallapaka Annamacharya’s descendants, which is evident from copper plates and epigraphic records now with the TTD. Against the permission for G+1 from Tirupati Urban Development Authority (TUDA), the management has constructed six floors,” said Samithi’s spokesperson Akula Krishna Kishore. He sought to know why the university’s admissions and decision-making should be confined to Mumbai, keeping the locals in the dark.

Reacting to the charges levelled by CPI (M) that the Hindu groups were “communalising” the issue, he wondered how the party, which always stood against land grabbing and building violation, could back this “breach”. “We never objected to the presence of 150 mosques and scores of Urdu schools in Tirupati limits, but this one is fraught with controversies,” he told the Tirupati Muslim JAC, which has expressed apprehension over the objections raised.

Source: The Hindu, October 31, 2013