New Delhi: The Central Information Commission has a question for the Tirupati temple authorities and the state and central governments: where are the ornaments donated to the shrine by 16th-century Vijayanagara ruler Sri Krishna Devaraya?

Information commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu has posed his query to the Archaeological Survey of India, Union culture ministry, Andhra Pradesh government and the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), which manages the temple.

Acharyulu has also asked the Prime Minister's Office whether the Centre is considering declaring the Venkateswara temple, and those around it at Tirupati, as national monuments and protecting them as world heritage structures.

RTI applicant B.K.S.R. Ayyangar had sought to know from the Prime Minister's Office what action the government had taken on his plea to have the Tirumala temples declared national heritage monuments.

Ayyangar says his query was transferred from one authority to the other but evoked no satisfactory response.

He has accused the Devasthanam of failing to protect the 1,500-year-old structures in Tirupati, citing how it had shelved a 2011 proposal to declare the temples as ancient monuments under the Ancient Monument and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958.

Acharyulu cited a 2011 report by the director of archaeology and museums, Hyderabad, which said a 20-member team had found that the inscriptions on the walls of the temple mentioned ornaments donated by Sri Krishna Devaraya.

The report, however, says "no ornament" with the temple matches any of those donated by the king, the commissioner noted.

"It is not a wild allegation of the appellant, but a major finding by the director of the ministry of culture, which was not acted upon since 2011," he said.

Acharyulu said the Devasthanam had appointed a self-appraisal committee under two former Supreme Court judges, Justices D.P. Wadhwa and Jagannadha Rao. This panel too had noted that the "Tiruvabharanam" register, maintained at the temple since 1952, did not mention any ornaments received from the Vijayanagara king.

"The report pointed out that there was no register for the ornaments in the temple before 1952," Acharyulu noted.

He said it was not known whether there was any record of all the valuable ornaments, old and new.

While hearing a public interest plea in 2009, Andhra Pradesh High Court too had wondered why the temple administration was reluctant to make a comprehensive inventory of the jewellery, Acharyulu said.