Savings account of Kalighat temple shows an annual balance of Rs63, which is lesser than minimum amount required to maintain an account.
KOLKATA: The savings bank account shows an annual balance of just Rs 63, which is lesser than the minimum amount of Rs 100 required to maintain a savings account with any public sector bank.
The account holder happens to be the trust of the famous Kalighat temple in Kolkata, and considered to be one of the 51 “piths”. This has come to light following a public interest litigation (PIL) filed against the temple trust, the hearing for which is on, under a division bench of the chief justice of the Calcutta High Court, Justice Vikas Shridhar Sirpurkar.
In the public interest litigation filed by Prahlad Goenka, the Kalighat temple trust authorities have been charged with severe misappropriation of funds and non-maintenance of accounts. Replying to Goenka’s allegations, the temple committee informed the division bench that after meeting the day-to-day expenditure of the temple, the savings bank account of the temple trust has a balance of just Rs 63. After the hearing on Friday, Justice Sirpurkar has ordered the temple authorities to furnish details of the accounts, including the income-expenditure statement, to the court within three weeks of the order. At the same time, the chief justice has also ordered the Kolkata Municipal Corporation to submit its plans regarding development of the Kalighat temple to the court within the same period.
In the PIL, Goenka alleged that, on an average, the temple received around Rs 60,000 from daily donations.
On special occasions, the amount rises to even Rs 5,00,000. Goenka further alleged that the temple committee has also not maintained records of the ornaments that devotees offer from time to time. According to him, the total amount misappropriated by the temple committee would be nothing less than Rs 100 crore.
In support of his argument, Goenka’s counsels furnished a picture of the image of Goddess Kali of the Kalighat temple, which had been taken way back in 1963. From the picture it was evident that the four hands of the image were of pure gold. However, according to the present records, the hands are made of brass. Goenka, in his PIL, charged that several gold ornaments, along with the golden hands, have vanished over the years.
While giving the order, Justice Sirpurkar has been quite critical of the negligent attitude of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation as well as the temple committee in taking any initiative for the temple’s upkeep. “It seems, no one bothers to develop the temple as well as keep it clean,” Justice Sirpurkar observed.
It may be recalled that an amount of Rs 5 crore was sanctioned and disbursed to Kolkata Municipal Corporation by the Union tourism ministry for the development of Kalighat temple. However, the amount had to be returned to the ministry since the corporation could not prepare and submit the temple development plan within time.
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