Village priests seek govt package for upliftment

Chennai: The village temple priests have pitched their hopes on the state government to alleviate their sufferings. They have demanded the government to introduce a special package for their upliftment taking into acc­ount their educational and economic backwardness.

The Grama Kovil Poo­jarigal Peravai has ur­ged the state government to san­ction monthly remuneration for priests of village temples, besides doubling the pension sum of Rs 1,000 being given now.

The pension should be provided to the spouses of pujaris after their demise. The organisations also demanded sanction of educational assistance to Hindu students and closure of Tasmac liquor outlets near the temples.

Free electricity to village temples, apart, they want the government to include them as beneficiaries under the Green House Scheme. Also, ex-gratia should be provided to them on par with their counterparts in the temples managed by the state Hindu Religious and Cha­ritable Endowments (H­R & CE) department, for the ensuing Pongal.

The Oru Kaala Puja sch­eme has been keeping faith alive besides reviving worship in village temples across Tamil Nadu, thanks to the state government. Launched in 1986, the sch­eme ensured the conduct regular pooja in temples lacking resources to conduct even pooja once daily.

To ensure public participation, CM J. Jayalalithaa had in 1993 formed a corpus with contribution from the public, revenue from affluent temples amounting to Rs 25,000 to be deposited as fixed deposit and the interest accruing from the deposit was used for conducting oru kaala pooja.

The CM’s gesture has benefited 11,931 temples. Later, she hiked the sum to Rs 1 lakh for every temple. A “one time grant” of Rs 59.48 crore was also provided.