State grants Rs180 crore to temples and trusts

The state government has doubled its grant to temples and religious trusts, keeping aside Rs180 crore..

The move has invited criticism from activists who pointed out that the state is facing an acute drought. “Students from these drought regions had no money to pay schools and college fees. The government is begging for funds. But when it comes to temples, they have doubled the grants,” said advocate and activist Mahendra Sandanshiv.

“There are almost 90 A and B grade temples in state. Earlier, the A grade temples — Siddhivinayak (Mumbai), Shirdi, Shani Shingnapur (Ahmednagar), Shegaon (Buldana) and Pandharpur (Solapur) used to receive Rs2 crore while the B grade ones would receive Rs1 crore. Now both the grade A and B temples will receive an equal amount,” stated the state government’s rural development department report.

However, to get this said sum, the particular temple should receive 1,500-2,000 devotees daily and over four lakh devotees in a year during festivals.

As per the government directives, the trust of these temples should spend this grant amount on improvement of the temple’s infrastructure.

@sudhir_dna