Offerings at Travancore Devaswom Board temples to become costly

Kochi: Soon devotees would be forced to shell out more for offerings at temples run by the Travancore Devaswom Board which is undertaking a massive exercise to make it “self-reliant”. Only 83 of the 1,250 temples the TDB manages have more annual revenue than the expenses incurred and the rest are “loss-making” as per the revenue-expenditure figures of the last three fiscal years. A high-level meet was held at the TDB headquarters the other day to discuss ways to make the remaining 1,167 temples “self-reliant”. “It was decided to standardise the rates of offerings at all temples. Also, the TDB would directly run shops near temples selling pooja materials and others. The measures will be entirely implemented by April 1, 2017,” a top official said.

In effect, this would result in a hike in offering rates even in small temples. However, the TDB states that the initiative will improve the quality of services. “We’ve been receiving complaints about the poor quality of materials sold at shops near temples. So far we’re leasing them out. Now the materials will be directly provided by the board. The attempts are part of efforts to find more revenue sources,” the official said.

When contacted, TDB president Prayar Gopalakrishnan said, “It’s wrong to term the initiatives in terms of profit or loss, but we want to develop the small temples and bring in standardisation in services offered.” The meet convened on Thursday was attended by Assistant Devaswom Commissioners and Sub group officers of such temples besides senior board officials. The decisions would be implemented in a stage by stage manner so that the “standardization” in services can be implemented by April 2017.