Telangana: Temple priests, staff to get salaries through treasury

Hyderabad: Priests and staff working in temples across TS are all set to get salaries through the treasury department, on par with government employees.
A Cabinet subcommittee, headed by endowments minister A. Indrakaran Reddy, which met in the Secretariat on Thursday recommended this.

Priests had since long demanded payment of salaries through the treasury department and had even launched agitations over the issue in the last two years. At present, the temple management committees pay salaries to priests and staff which vary from temple to temple.

However, only those working in a few temples which earn good revenues get salaries regularly, while priests in a majority of the temples sometimes go without pay for months and years due to their meagre income sources.

On Thursday, the Cabinet subcommittee could not arrive at the pay scales for priests. It however, directed officials to submit details of temples which incur establishment expenditure of over 30 per cent and below 30 per cent, to devise the pay scales.

It also sought details of contract, outsourcing, daily-wage employees working in temples. “Once we receive these details, we will meet again and finalise pay scales for priests and staff in temples. The proposals will be submitted to the CM for approval,” Mr Indrakaran Reddy said.

The committee also directed endowment officials to protect temple lands from encroachments and devise plans to earn revenues from available lands to make temples self-reliant. The committee also directed officials to implement the orders issued by endowments tribunal in toto.