Only
the Devout who regularly visits the temple
know the anguish…. It is not unique to any village temple… the malady
affects almost all temples – more so, when thousands of devotees come to the
temple …. More so when they contribute lakhs and crores of rupees in the Temple
hundis. WE have nobody else to blame
than ourselves having allowed the Govt to manage the Temples.
For a Hindu, devotion
and worship is way of life… their life revolves round the Temples ~ more around
those great temples of which Alwars and Nayanmars have sung hymns… doing
service at the temple, and donating their property were all for propitiation ~
and many rich people donated part of their wealth, their lands and more for
Temples – constructing them and maintaining them…. People who died without
progeny used to donate their property to temple – as when the temple flourished
– all the neighbourhood prospered…. ‘people lived happily in places where
culture and religion co-existed’…..
All
tales of the past…. Now there are some temples where even daily rituals are not
properly conducted… not all of them are in villages, neither – all of them not
having property …. They have huge estates – only the administrators are not
properly managing to derive revenue out of them. We have HR&CE which will take over
temples when revenue exceeds a set limit [the same rule does not apply to religious
institutions of others !!!!] – and with the temple money – they will conduct
political functions – in memory of leaders who preached atheism … why at a
temple premises …. If feeding the poor is the aim – do it in the name of God –
why in the name of political persons ?
have we questioned this ??
Sadly here
is a Temple in ruins and in a most
dilapidated state. A name board proclaims that Department of Archaelogy which
protects 85 monuments spread all over the state is taking care ! of this
temple. It is quite unfortunate that places which had
pristine glory have lost their veritable importance, are in dilapidated
condition needing conservation. It
really pains to see the temple lying shattered in ruins.
Sadly, the temple
precincts are poorly maintained – hygiene is not at all cared …. in some
places, the annual festivities do not take place …
In the
famous Triplicane Sri Parthaswami Thirukkovil, there was this building in South
Tank Square street, built for the purpose of keeping the magnificent ‘Kannadi
pallakku’ – ask anybody who is over 50 there – he would have witnessed that
beautiful kannadi pallakku – present condition : the one went fading due to
poor maintenance but the place was converted as car park for keeping the new
car of the Executive Officer of the Temple ! ~ none resisted or fighted
!!!!!!!!
HR
& CE and its boss Tamil Nadu Government have regularly been looting Hindu
Temples of their monies for non-temple, non-Hindu purposes. Three detailed Writ
Petitions have been filed by Mr TR Ramesh
as President of Indic Collective Trust and in my individual capacity
questioning the transfer of funds and for reparation funds already. Sai Deepak
Iyer J is to be thanked in a big way for his phenomenal efforts in creating
awareness of such looting and mismanagement of Hindu Temples & endowments
across the nation and for his involved efforts in arguing the core matter for
the benefit of Hindus before High Courts and Supreme Court.
With this
background, read the article below that has appeared in The Hindu – titled, “PIL
filed in Madras High Court accusing HR&CE Minister, Commissioner of using
cars purchased using temple funds” - Mohamed Imranullah S.
CHENNAI, AUGUST 02,
2020 00:24 IST
Litigant trust
claims that even fuel expenses are met by the temples
A public
interest litigation petition has been filed in the Madras High Court accusing
the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Minister as well as
the Commissioner of using cars purchased from the funds of the Kapaleeswarar
temple in Mylapore and the Kamakshiamman temple at Mangadu respectively.
Justices
M.M. Sundresh and R. Hemalatha have ordered notices to the State government as
well as the HR&CE Commissioner on the PIL petition filed by the Indic
Collective Trust, represented by its president T.R. Ramesh. The petitioner’s
counsel Niranjan Rajagopalan said temple money was being used even for fuel
expenses. The judges directed the
Registry to list the case along with another PIL petition filed by Rangarajan
Narasimhan of Srirangam against a Government Order to collect Rs.10
crore of surplus funds from 20 rich temples and use it to renovate 10,000
village temples. In that case, the court had passed an interim order
restraining any such expenditure.
In an
affidavit filed in support of his case, Mr. Ramesh said a combined reading of
Articles 25,26, 27 of the Constitution would make it clear that the State could
not appropriate funds belonging to temples and other religious institutions.
Hence, the trust had challenged the validity of many provisions of the
HR&CE Act before the Supreme Court. Even as those cases were pending in the
apex court, the HR&CE Department had been continuing to transfer temple
funds without following the provisions of its own Act, the trust alleged. It
claimed that funds were being diverted at the ipse dixit of the department
though the law prescribes elaborate procedures such as calling for public
objections.
Further
stating that the HR&CE had failed to appoint trustees for around 19,000
temples in the State since 2011, the litigant trust said they were being
managed by the department employees appointed as fit Persons. It insisted that
the funds of such temples should be used for their essential maintenance
purposes alone and not transferred at all. Mr. Rajagopalan also told the court
that temple funds had been used for purchasing computers for HR&CE
officials and painting their offices. He said now there was also a proposal by
the State government to start a television channel using temple funds and that
the trust would want to reserve its right to challenge the decision at an
appropriate time.
Sad, sordid
tale .. .. officials think they are bigger than God – the Executive Officer at
the holy Srirangam Ranganatha Perumal koil audaciously has his official car
driven on the sands of ulprakaram to reach Office – devotees rever these places
with devotion as these were the places were Azhwars and Acaryas had treaded ..
..
When the
thiruther of a temple has some defects, it takes years and lots of money from
various Devotees to get renovated ~ HR&CE Dept never places the money
collected from the same temple in repairing it – b u t, luxury cars are bought
for use of Officers.
