KCR Inaugurates Brahmin Sadan, Showers Sops On Brahmin Community

HYDERABAD: Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Wednesday inaugurated the Brahmin Sadan, a facility for members of the community to perform marriages or other functions for free, in Gopanapally and announced a slew of sops for the community on the occasion.

The building, spread over nine acres, comprises an auditorium, information centre and accommodation facilities for seers and religious heads visiting the state. It has been constructed at a cost of Rs 12 crore.

At the event, the Chief Minister announced a hike in the monthly honorarium for Vedic priests from Rs 2,500 to Rs 5,000, reduced the eligibility age from 75 to 65 years, enhanced the Doopa Deepa Naivedhyam scheme grant for ‘archaks’ from Rs 6,000 to Rs 10,000 per month for temple upkeep.

The upkeep grant hike was also extended to 2,796 temples, taking the total of temples covered under it to 6,441, from the current 3,645.

Chandrashekar Rao further announced that the Rs 2 lakh assistance currently being extended for operations and maintenance of Veda Patashalas, in phases, would now be released as an annual grant in one go. He also promised to extend the fee reimbursement scheme for Brahmin students pursuing education in prestigious institutes like IIMs and ITMs.

In an interaction with the community members, Rao assured to resolve the issues of 'anuvamshika archakas (hereditary priests)’ in the next Cabinet meeting.

Elaborating on the measures taken by the BRS government for the welfare and development of the Brahmin community in Telangana, the Chief Minister listed the establishment of the Brahmana Samkshema Parishad on February 1, 2017, as a key move.

“Since then, Rs 100 crore was being allocated every year to parishad to implement welfare and development programmes for the Brahmin community in Telangana. Although the Brahmin community is considered a forward caste, there are several people in this community who are poor and struggling to make ends meet. We felt it's the responsibility of the state government to come to the rescue of poor people in Brahmin community and decided to set up the parishad for their upliftment,” Rao noted.

The Chief Minister said that the parishad extended financial assistance to 780 Brahmin students to pursue higher education abroad under the Vivekananda Overseas Study Scholarship scheme. The government extended financial assistance of Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh, depending on the course duration, he said.

To encourage entrepreneurs among the poor in the Brahmin community to set up their units, the Chief Minister said that his government launched the Brahmin Empowerment scheme, under which a maximum grant of Rs 5 lakh was being extended, with the state government disbursing Rs 150 crore so far.

Meanwhile, hereditary priests hailed the assurance given by Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on resolving their long-pending issues in the next Cabinet meeting. Priests who were present on the occasion gave thunderous applause to the Chief Minister's announcement.

C.S. Rangarajan, convenor of the Temples Protection Movement and chief priest at Chilkur Balaji Temple, who was also present at the event, said that this was a long-cherished dream of ‘archaks’ in the state. “In AP, after bifurcation of state, the same was realised with the AP government issuing GO 439 for hereditary archaks. The archaks in AP were happy with the implementation GO 439. The same GO needs to be adopted in Telangana as the 30/87 Endowments Act is the same,” he said.

“Apprehensions and fears of archak families were dispelled with the CM’s announcement. They can perform their duties without any fear of the future,” Rangarajan said.

The Endowments Act 30/87 was amended during the tenure of Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy in the united Andhra Pradesh in 2007. But successive governments ignored the implementation of the amended Act of 2007 which restored the hereditary status of ‘archaks’.